FREETOWN: Isha Johansen, president of the Sierra Leone FA, has been cleared of all the corruption charges against her by the high court in Freetown.

Her acquittal, along with that of general secretary Christopher Kamara, paves the way for the lifting of the country’s suspension from world  football by FIFA.

Both had been accused of 10 charges of corruption, later reduced to four by the government’s Anti Corruption Commission.

They were accused of misappropriating US$50,000 given to SLFA by the African confederation CAF for the costs of the of magnetic resonance imaging tests on 30 players of the under-17 team in 2014 and dishonestly appropriated US$ 5,000 to repay a loan to the husband of Isha, Arne Johansen.

Justice Reginal Finn said the prosecution had failed to prove its case and that there was no evidence before him to hold the defendants culpable.

FIFA suspended Sierra Leone in October last year because of third-party interference in the running of the SLFA in contravention of world federation statutes,

The ban was enacted after the ACC handed control of the SLFA to vice-president Brima Mazola Kamara and assistant secretary general Abdul Rahman Swarray.

FIFA always maintained it would only recognise Johansen as the SLFA president.

Sierra Leone’s ban saw national teams barred from from taking part in the qualifying campaign for next month’s African Cup of Nations in Egypt and Tokyo 2020 Women’s Olympic qualifiers.

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