Prosecuting Lawyer for the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Glenna Thompson has asked Justice Mary Sey of the Freetown High court to again warn former Ombudsman, Francis Gabbidon (defendant) for him not to interfere with prosecution witnesses either directly or indirectly. Addressing the court yesterday when the matter came up, Ms Thompson said that the defendant is in court not based on the Ombudsman Act; but in court for how he falsely represented that either Christopher Peacock or Melron Nicol- Wilson were working under him as Ombudsman and that they were receiving salaries at the end of every month. Responding to this, Francis Gabbidon said that he is a responsible Lawyer who has been in practice for over 30 years and added that Ms Thompson has accused him of interfering with prosecution witnesses, demanding that he wants a proof of that. Earlier on, before a witness was to testify, Defense Lawyer for Gabbidon Bu-Buakei Jabbie rejected on the grounds that, the entire actions covering all the 168 count charges is entirely and absolutely time bound. He drew the court’s attention to section 21 sub-section 1 and 2 of the Limitation Act No 51 of 1961 that makes a general time bound limitation of one year for court proceedings to be taken against Public Officer.In response the Prosecutor Lawyer said that the Limitation Act does not apply in this matter, adding that she wants to fast track with the matter as the first witness will be traveling out of the jurisdiction over the weekend. However after listening to both the Prosecuting and Defense Counsels, Justice Mary Sey adjourned the matter for ruling and said that Notices will be sent to the ACC for the next adjourned date.Shortly after the adjournment, it was alleged that the defendant threatened the Prosecution Lawyer. It could be recalled that, on 18 August 2008, Mrs. Thompson made an open statement to the court of how the defendant “between a two month period being the Ombudsman misappropriated a particular sum which had been entrusted to him for payment to either Christopher Peacock or Melron Nicol-Wilson as monthly salary having falsely represented that these gentlemen were employed by the office of the Ombudsman.”She added that “the accused prepared or caused to be prepared a budget which included names of people who were not employees of his office.” Ms Thompson told the court that documents of payments from the Accountant General’s office for salaries will be tendered in court,” and that evidence will be made from the ministry of finance about the annual budgetary allocation to that office.”
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