Van Weel accused of neo-colonialism in Bolle Jos extradition row

Sierra Leone’s chief minister has accused Dutch justice minister David van Weel of “neo-colonialism” after he appeared on a national television show to demand the extradition of fugitive drugs lord Jos “Bolle Jos” Leijdekkers.

Van Weel spoke by video link from The Hague on broadcaster AYV’s State of the Nation programme on Wednesday, saying that the Netherlands had lodged a formal extradition request more than a year ago but no progress had been made.

Leijdekkers is suspected of hiding in Sierra Leone after footage of him at a church service with the president surfaced online last year. It’s alleged he is in a relationship with the president’s daughter and has a child with her.

Major drug shipments passing through West African ports are also suspected to be orchestrated by Leijdekkers’ organisation, including the biggest cocaine shipment ever seized earlier this year, and last week a 4,000 tonne seizure in France that had sailed from Ghana.

“Show the pictures”
Sierra Leonean minister David Moinina Sengeh, the president’s most senior official, responded on the same programme, saying the pressure the Netherlands was putting on the country was “scandalous” and amounted to “neo-colonialism.”

Sierra Leone is an independent country, he said, and Van Weel should stop appearing on television and threatening to cut EU aid – adding that the country did not live on European money, Nieuwsuur reported.

“Hand on heart, our security intelligence does not know where Leijdekkers is,” Sengeh said. “We cannot go by what these guys are saying or what some people are using others to say. If they know, show the pictures.”

Sengeh also accused the Netherlands of double standards, saying Freetown had twice asked The Hague to extradite a political activist and social media commentator known as Adebayor, who lives in the Netherlands and whom Sierra Leone accuses of inciting violence during riots there in 2022.

“We sent the attorney-general there. We sent the foreign affairs minister there,” he said. “They refused extradition. Have they given us that due respect to come?”

Van Weel: “ridiculous”
Van Weel told Nieuwsuur in Dutch that the neo-colonialism accusation was “ridiculous” and that the fierce reaction showed his strategy was working. He said he had not yet received a call from Freetown indicating any acceleration of the extradition process.

The interview is the latest step in a pressure campaign that has escalated since the spring. In June, Van Weel asked the EU to halt development aid to Sierra Leone, worth €352 million for the 2021 to 2027 period, though the request has so far failed to win support from other member states. In July he travelled to Ghana to build a coalition of West African countries to lean on Freetown.

Leijdekkers has been sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands and Belgium to terms Van Weel says total around 80 years.