Three accused persons, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara, Musa Kamara and Mohamed Sillah, were on Monday arraigned before Magistrate Abu Bakarr Binneh Kamara at the Siaka Steven Street Magistrate Court no.1, in Freetown, for illegal transportation of timber.
According to the police investigator, Karim Kargbo, who is the officer in charge at the Sannia police post, in Bombali district, the accused were arrested with a truck of timber logs on the 17th of September this year as they were moving from Sannia towards the Sierra Leone Guinea border.
He told the court that the accused were arrested because they failed to produce any document permitting them to transport the said items and that the logs of timber were reaped from an area that is legally prohibited for harvesting timber.
The investigator explained that on the 20th of September, the accused were taken to the Kamakwei police station where they made statements. He added that pictures of the truck with the alleged logs of timber were also taken.
The accused are tried on four count charges which includes conspiracy; removal of timber without lawful authority; destruction of protected trees without lawful authority; and unlawful possession of forest product all contrary to the laws of Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile the magistrate has granted fifty million Leones bail with one surety to each of the accused.
The matter will come up on the 18th of October.
By Edna Smalle
Tuesday October 11, 2016
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