FREETOWN,
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 Tuesday.
Amadu Kargbo was
sentenced to six months in jail by a court in the southwestern 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 one million leones (Sh21,000, $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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