The European Commission has suspended nearly $20 million in aid to Sierra Leone’s 2026 budget due to the West African country’s harboring one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives, alleged cocaine kingpin Joseph “Jos” Leijdekkers, Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said Thursday.
Posting on social media from the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, van Weel wrote: “At the JHA Council meeting in Luxembourg, discussions are focusing on European security and the EU sanctions regime for organized crime.
A positive development in this context is that the EU will no longer provide budget support to the authorities of Sierra Leone this year.”
Later in the day, he told Dutch public broadcaster NOS that the EU had suspended 18 million euros (roughly $20 million) in aid to Sierra Leone because the West African country is not cooperating with the Netherlands’ extradition request for Leijdekkers, a Dutch citizen.
Courts in the Netherlands and Belgium have handed Leijdekkers more than 100 years in prison sentences in absentia in convictions for a range of crimes, including drug trafficking, assault, armed robbery, and attempted murder.
Leijdekkers’ lawyer Guy Weski has, in a phone conversation with OCCRP, denied his involvement in large-scale cocaine shipments from Sierra Leone.
The suspension of the funding, which does not include overseas development and humanitarian aid, was a “clear signal from the EU Commission that Sierra Leone must stop sheltering this criminal,” van Weel told NOS, adding the Sierra Leone government “can resolve this within 24 hours by arresting and extraditing this man.”
However, the Sierra Leone government refuted van Weel’s assertions in a press statement issued Thursday by its Ministry of Information and Civic Education.
Sierra Leone said EU representatives had informed it that support for the country’s budget had been delayed by procedural issues, not talks with the Netherlands or any individual case, and that disbursements were now proposed for 2027 and 2028.
“Sierra Leone remains committed to international cooperation against transnational organized crime and to constructive judicial cooperation with all partners.
At the same time, attempts to instrumentalize development cooperation or exert pressure on Sierra Leone through public threats and media campaigns are unhelpful,” it added.
At a Thursday press briefing following the high-level meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers, Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, said the suspension of aid “was due to technical reasons,” not for Sierra Leone’s alleged harboring of Leijdekkers.
“I think what we need is action against third countries that harbor drug traffickers […] We are concerned as a European Union about drug trafficking and transnational crime and organized crime trends in Sierra Leone,” he told reporters, but added: “When it comes to the suspension of the support, that’s due to technical reasons.”
Van Weel’s office did not respond to an OCCRP request for further comment, and he did not release a statement or speak after the official press conference following the Luxembourg meeting, where discussions focused on migration, the EU drugs strategic framework, and the impact of the geopolitical environment on European security.
However, a Dutch diplomat with the delegation in Luxembourg backed the justice minister’s assertion that the suspension of aid to Sierra Leone was tied to its harboring of Leijdekkers.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that to confront similar challenges in the future, van Weel would push the European Commission to fast-track the adoption of a proposed sanctions regime targeting organized crime.
“Organized crime networks operating across borders can be very effective being based in a third country where local authorities might be unwilling to cooperate or extradite them,” the delegate told OCCRP in a telephone interview.
The new sanctions regime aimed at tackling organized crimes such as migrant smuggling, human, firearms and narcotics trafficking and money laundering was proposed by the EU Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in July.
In Sierra Leone, the news that the EU aid to the country’s budget may have been suspended over the alleged harboring of Leijdekkers raised concerns that it would affect livelihoods.
“Justice and accountability for transnational crimes are non-negotiable, but they must be pursued through strengthened partnership and rule of law, not by withdrawing support from the people of Sierra Leone,” Abdul M. Fatoma, a human rights activist and anti-corruption campaigner in the capital of Freetown, told OCCRP.
(OCCRP)
