Sierra Leone rebel deaths in custody

A spokesman for the main rebel group in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front, has expressed concern over the number of deaths in jails, where scores of rebels have been held in recent months.

The rebels' political leader, Omrie Golley, said the number of deaths of rebels in custody - seven since May this year - was of great concern.

He was speaking shortly after Solomon Rogers, the rebel movement's secretary-general, died in prison in Freetown.

Prison officials said he died of high blood pressure and malaria.

He'd been detained in May last year after the RUF, which has been fighting to take power in Sierra Leone for more than a decade, broke a peace accord and took hostage hundreds of United Nations observers.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service