Dutch journalist harassed in "systemic and organized attack" in Sierra Leone

 Last week, Thomas Dixon, a journalist from Sierra Leone with  17,500 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter), reported that the police in Sierra Leone confiscated a secure digital (SD) card from Dutch journalist Sophie van Leeuwen after deleting everything on her personal computer and mobile phone.

Unnamed sources familiar with the police's actions claimed that the SD card was held for security reasons.

Dixon stated that human rights activists demanded the return of the SD card and a public apology for the journalist's harassment. 

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Sophie shared a photo of herself looking distraught, peering out of a ferry window as it made its way across the lagoon.

"My work has been destroyed, and my colleague Joseph Turay fears for his life," she wrote, adding that there was no press freedom in Sierra Leone.

On Facebook, Sophie is listed as a freelance journalist and RTL Nieuws's African correspondent, with ties to BNR Nieuwsradio, FRANCE 24, and RNW Media.

On February 14, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that Johannes Leijdekkers, one of Europe’s most wanted drug lords, had been living in Sierra Leone since at least December 2022.

Sources indicated that the Dutch national has been living in Sierra Leone for two years, frequenting nightclubs and house parties.

Leijdekkers was sentenced in absentia to decades in prison for large-scale cocaine trafficking and ordering a murder.

In September 2024, Dutch police stated that he was still missing and offered a €200,000 (£170,000) reward for information leading to his arrest.

A significant development occurred when Leijdekkers was seen attending a New Year's Day church service with the Sierra Leonean presidential family.

The country’s first lady posted the footage on Facebook, and Reuters verified it using facial recognition technology.

Sources reported that he has been receiving high-level protection in Sierra Leone, a known transit point for cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe.

In reaction to the footage, Dutch prosecutors confirmed that Leijdekkers had been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months and could be traced back to at least December 2022.

Sources also noted that he attended a house party in December 2023 and is said to be in a relationship with Agnes Bio, the daughter of Sierra Leone's president, Julius Maada Bio.

They were seen sitting together in the church service footage from January 1, 2025. Bio is the president's daughter from a relationship with Zainab Kandeh, Sierra Leone's consul to Morocco, and serves as an alternate representative of Sierra Leone on the UN Security Council.

According to an anonymous presidential official, Leijdekkers was also present at President Maada Bio's farm in Tihun during a visit in 2024. Footage of a man resembling Leijdekkers has circulated, showing him being cheered by villagers as he harvested rice.

Leijdekkers, who has taken on several aliases, including Bolle Jos, was sentenced in absentia by a Rotterdam court last June to 24 years in prison for six drug transports totaling 7,000 kg of cocaine, an armed robbery in Finland and for ordering the murder of an associate.

A Belgian court also sentenced him to 10 years in absentia in September for attempting to smuggle drugs through the port of Antwerp in 2020. 

Sierra Leone has long served as a staging post for cocaine shipments from South America to Europe.

The new revelations about Leijdekkers come at a time when Sierra Leonean authorities recently recalled their ambassador from neighboring Guinea after seven suitcases containing suspected cocaine were discovered in an embassy vehicle.