The former dictator of Sierra Leone, Valentine Strasser, has been deported from Britain and is under arrest in The Gambia, West Africa.
Human rights activists demanded Strasser's arrest for war crimes earlier this year, after an investigation by The Independent revealed he was living in north London.
He was refused re-entry to Britain earlier this month and flew back to The Gambia, where he had been staying with friends.
Amnesty International said Strasser should be investigated for war crimes
He was detained by Gambian security forces last week and accused of possessing "operational'' documents giving "strategic'' site descriptions. It was not clear whether the documents related to The Gambia or to Sierra Leone, where Strasser was military ruler between 1992 and 1996.
The arrest has given rise to speculation that the former dictator might have been planning to stage a return to power, overthrowing Sierra Leone's President, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
The security forces handed Strasser to The Gambia's National Intelligence Agency, and he was being held at its headquarters in the capital, Banjul, on Monday amid reports that he might be deported to Sierra Leone.
After being overthrown four years ago, Strasser was given safe passage to London and awarded a two-year United Nations grant to study at Warwick University. However, he dropped out of his law course when the money ran out and until The Independent tracked him down in May he was believed to have returned to Sierra Leone.
Amnesty International said Strasser should be investigated for war crimes, including the shooting of 26 people on a beach during his period in power, which followed a coup. He was also said to have flown to Antwerp in a diamond dealer's private jet to sell gems worth £29-million (about R319-million).
The human rights organisation said Britain had an obligation to arrest and detain Strasser for alleged abuses. The case of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who was held in Britain for 17 months before being released on medical grounds, had confirmed that the authorities should take into custody and investigate anyone alleged to have committed torture, its spokesperson said.
Strasser became the world's youngest national leader, at 26, when he was swept to power in a 1992 coup. He was deposed four years later by his armed forces chief, Julius Maada Bio.
After leaving Warwick he moved to the home of an old school friend, Gibril Samura, in Brondesbury, north London. Later, he was reported to be living in a council flat in Islington.
Strasser blamed politicians and the military last year for the continuing turmoil in Sierra Leone. Civilians hungry for power had used his failure to stop the war in order to gather support for a pro-democracy campaign, he said.
"You cannot have elections in a country which is in the heat of a civil war,'' he said. "The military undermined my ability to bring the war to a speedy conclusion, which they eventually used as an argument for my overthrow.'' - The Independent, London
