By Kebba Ansu Manneh
The case of the seven former operatives of defunct National Intelligence Agency who are charged with twenty-five charges in the murder of Solo Sandeng failed to proceed yesterday, 31 October 2018.
It would be recalled that Yankuba Badjie, Sheikh Omar Jeng, Babucarr Sallah, Harun Susso, Tamba Mansireh, Lamin Lang Sanyang, and Lamin Darboe, all former operatives of the defunct National Intelligence Agency (NIA), have earlier told the court that the cautionary and voluntary statements they made in detention were given under duress. They adduced that their statements were obtained involuntarily and submitted that they should be struck out accordingly.
After they made their allegations, the Court paused the main trial and conduct another trial to determine whether investigators obtained statements involuntarily from the accused. This process, trial within a trial, is called Voir Dire. Section 31 of the Evidence Act of The Gambia provides that “a confession is a voluntary admission made at any time by a person charged with an offense. According to section 33 of the Evidence Act, “a confession will be irrelevant and therefore inadmissible if it is caused by any inducement, threat or promise having reference to the charge proceeding from a person in authority and sufficient in the opinion of the court to give the accused person grounds which would appear to him reasonable for supposing that by making it, he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature.”
When the case was called before Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara at the high court in Banjul, State hired private prosecutor, Lawyer Antouman Gaye, told the court that members of the prosecution team are yet to finalize their discussions on both the cautionary and voluntary statements of the accused persons. ”We (prosecution) have not been able to conclude our discussions regarding the cautionary and voluntary statements of the accused,” Lead Counsel Gaye told the court. Lawyer Gaye asked for an adjournment until next week and submitted that the prosecution will be ready then to call its witnesses (statement takers) to appear before the court on the next adjourned date.
Responding to the submission of the prosecution team, Emmanuel E. Chime, the defense counsel for the first accused Yankuba Badjie, said he has no objection to the Prosecution team’s submission. On his part, Saikou Fatty who is the counsel for three accused defendants—Babucarr Sallah, Tamb Mansireh and Lamin Lang Sanyang— objected to the prosecution team’s application for an adjournment.
In ruling on the submissions after hearing from counsels on both sides of the trial, Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara said that since key witnesses could not appear for the proceeding, she will adjourn the hearing to Monday, 5 November 2018, to allow the prosecution to bring its witnesses to the court to proceed with the trial.
Readers would recall that the court struck out the case of Louise Gomez because he is deceased. Mr. Gomez died while in detention. Another accused person, Yusupha Jammeh, was acquitted and discharged of all charges on 5 June 2018.