Magistrate Komba Kamanda, of magistrate court No. 2, yesterday urged the prosecuting lawyer, Gerald J. Soyei to submit all their factual evidence on the ongoing preliminary investigation in the alleged kidnapping matter in the next sitting.
This according to the Magistrate was to avoid giving excuses as the prosecution is objecting to bail on the grounds that, the accused persons will interfere with their witnesses.
The said matter involves the just elected Councilor Mohamed Kanu-Mansaray of Constituency 104, ward 369 in the Fourah bay community; Gibrilla Conteh, Baimaru Conteh and Hindolo Moseray as first, second, third and forth accused persons respectively.
Before the start of the matter, police barricaded the entire court premises allowing only limited people and journalists with their identification card at hand, to avoid overcrowding during the proceeding.
Led in evidence by lawyer Gerald J. Soyei, Lamin Bangura (PW2) residing at Moyamba junction, stated that he was informed by his colleague Okada rider that Mohamed Koroma (the victim) had been taken away in a jeep by unknown persons which forced him to call the victim to ascertain his destination.
He maintained that the victim disclosed that, they were heading for Mile 91, where he together with other three Okada riders went to investigate at the police station if anyone was brought by some people with a jeep, but were informed by police officers that no jeep was seen in that station. The witness said that they were informed about the jeep being seen heading towards Masiaka and as a result, they decided to chase them.
“Towards Camp Challie, I overtook the jeep and drove towards the passenger seat and then asked the fourth accused to stop the jeep so that we can solve the problem but they failed to stop and at Modkar junction, I also stopped them but this time, the fourth accused told the driver that if I go before the jeep, let him hit and kill me,” says the witness.
According to the witness, upon receiving that information and lack of fuel, he advised his colleagues to stop and return to Moyamba and then explained the issue to the victim’s parent and then made statement at the Moyamba police station.
In cross examination by lawyer A.Y Brewah, the witness told the court that he cannot recall the jeep registration number, but that he had it in his phone.
Lawyer A.Y. Brewah applied that the accused persons be put on bail, as according to the record of the magistrate all accused persons have appeared three times and they have not received any report of interfering with the witnesses or evidence, adding that apart from the provisions in the Criminal Procedure Act, the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone guaranteed the freedom of the accused persons to be granted bail citing section 223, as all accused are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.
He argued that refusing bail will be tantamount to the conclusion that the Court has already prejudged before the conclusion of the evidence, regardless of what the prosecution will have to say and asked the Magistrate to be independent in his decision. This prompted lawyer Soyei to object and Magistrate Kamanda stated that it should be left with him.
Lawyer Soyei objected to bail stating that he relied on his previous objection, and that the Magistrate should consider the evidence that is leading to the response to show the gravity of the matter, particularly the dangerous reputation of the matter which is very alarming as the evidence indicates their propensity that they will commit similar offence and that they will interfere with the prosecution.
He disclosed that after the previous sitting, he was personally insulted by presumably supporters of the accused persons, “The catalogue of abusive language used on me, and my Lord you could recall when PW1 refused to go out of Court after testifying, and my Lord in the interest of justice … I have been threatened and molested as I am doing my job as a Civil Servant. I should not be intimidated,” he said.
Magistrate Komba Kamanda said that he is interested in the last statement as lawyer Soyei is doing his job and should not be intimidated and that he personally wants to commend lawyer E.M. N’gakui as he was the only lawyer that was with him when the people were misbehaving and he went out to calm them down.
He disclosed that bail is the discretion of the bench and that if bail is not given they will go to High Court, adding that he thought before the application for bail by the defense counsel they should have appologised for the insultive behavior during the previous sitting.
“In my own opinion, at this stage if bail is granted to the accused persons there is every likelihood that they will interfere with the prosecution,” he ruled.
The matter comes up again on Monday 13th February 2012.
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