A village chief has become the first person in Sierra Leone to be
jailed under laws aimed at preventing the spread of the Ebola virus, court
officials and lawyers said on Tuesday.
Amadu
Kargbo was sentenced to six months in jail by a court in the south-western city
of Moyamba for secretly burying the dead and failing to report a sick patient,
court official Foday Fofanah told AFP.
He
was also fined $235 and ordered to spend 21 days in quarantine before going to
jail.
Lawyers
in the capital Freetown said it was the first known conviction under the
country's Ebola laws.
Fofanah said the chief had
pleaded guilty to secretly burying his daughter, who had died of Ebola.
He
added that Kargbo's wife had also died after attending the funeral of another
family member, although it was not clear if any of the charges related to his
wife's death and burial.
Ebola
has killed more than 7 500 people, almost all of them in west Africa and Sierra
Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola
infections.
Authorities
have banned public gatherings as well as New Year celebrations as part of
sweeping efforts to stem the spread of the virus.
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