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Sierra Leonean authorities have imposed a travel ban on former President Ernest Bai Koroma and several officials who served during his term on allegations of corruption.
Mr. Koroma and more than 100 people will not be able to leave the country.
They have been ordered to return the stolen money, to lose their homes, or to be investigated further.
Koroma’s opposition party All People’s Congress (APC) has dismissed the allegations.
A lawyer for the party has said they will go to court to challenge the ruling.
Last week, President Maada Bio said that the inquiry commission, headed by foreign judges, was a breakthrough that would help make corruption out of fashion and risky.
“We have to draw the line … we cannot be as corrupt as a nation and hope to develop,” he told the BBC.
The commission identified as “persons of interest” 111 persons consisting of former heads of parastatal entities, bankers and businessmen.
Umaru Fofana, from the BBC in the capital, Freetown, says the instruction signed by the attorney general and the justice minister instructs the country’s immigration chief and the inspector general of police not to allow them to leave Sierra Leone by air, land or sea until they have cleared.
Development has divided Sierra Leoneans in half, says our reporter.
