Lady Dove says...
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO LIVE AFTER THEM
Lady Dove Says

Sections

Links

Gam Sports

Bookmark and Share

GAMCOTRAP case update

Wednesday, 02 February 2011 20:23

Isatou_and_Amie1Below is an update of the on-going trial of two members of Gambia’s anti-female circumcision organisation, GAMCOTRAP, whose arrest and subsequent charging on theft allegation drew wide spread attention both locally and internationally.
Dr. Isatou Touray, the Director of the organisation and her programme coordinator, Amie Bojang sissoho, are the subjects of legal actions initiated by the Gambian authorities in a case that has been viewed widely as politically motivated.
The articles below detail the last three hearings on the matter: 29th and 31st January, and 1st February 2011.

Court Hearing of 29th January 2011 at 11:00 AM
“GAMCOTRAP work is mainly for the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation”
-Spanish witness to CourtIsatou_and_Amie1
The Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad Begoña Ballesteros Sanchez has been questioned as State witness for the first time after court procedural issues being flawed by the Prosecution.  The court was aided with a translator in the name of Dodou Manneh. He swore to the Holy Quran to translate from English to Spanish and Spanish to English to the best of his ability and also swore Begoña using the Holy Bible to say the truth in court.
The hearing was presided by Principal Magistrate, Taiwo Ade Alagde and the State was represented by Superintendent Sainey Joof and the accused were presented by Amie Bensouda and Ebrima Jah.
The hearing started in earnest with the Prosecution questioning Begoña Ballesteros Sanchez.  She told the court that GAMCOTRAP work is mainly for the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation.  After a lengthy presentation about her organization, Begoña identified and confirmed the Contract Agreement signed between Yolocamba Solidaridad and GAMCOTRAP and told the court that funds were transferred to GAMCOTRAP to execute the Project.  She further told the court that Project on Training information Campaign against FGM in the Gambia was approved by the Region of Madrid and took out documents she said attempted to read to the court and Defence lawyer Amie Bensouda objected to because the witness cannot refer to documents that have not been provided to the Defence.   
The Prosecution continued to ask if GAMCOTRAP carried out a micro credit project and Begoña responded “I don’t know, this is the main problem, the micro credit budget was 31,000 Euros. The entire project fund was 144,000 Euros”.  At this point, the Prosecution presented her with exhibit B and she confirmed that the document presented was the budget Yolocamba prepared for the project for the Region of Madrid.  “GAMCOTRAP sent me the project and we put everything in this format,” She said.   Begoña further told the court that the total direct cost is 129, 824 Euros and that was the total amount sent to GAMCOTRAP.    She continue to tell the court that a revolving fund format was sent to the Region of Madrid which included Feasibility study, Business, training for Circumcisers, provision  of money  for micro credit.  After a lengthy and repetitive questioning by the Prosecution, Begoña told the court that GAMCOTRAP has never given her any report about the project and that if GAMCOTRAP does not provided explanation of the expenditure of the 31,000 Euros, it would have to repay all the 129,000 Euros provided for the project.  She reiterated that Yolocamba Solidaridad needs to have invoices, contracts, legal information regarding partners work.  
The Prosecution further asked what GAMCOTRAP’s response was.  The witness said Yolocamba demanded for the said documents but it is up to GAMCOTRAP to provide them.  She added they have never received any reports from GAMCOTRAP.   However she told the court that GAMCOTRAP told her that 5000 Euros was spent as donation and 25,000 Euros on operations.   She told the court that they were perplexed since they were not given any document justifying expenditure.  She said the project was supposed to end on the 31st January 2010 but Yolocamba Solidaridad asked the Region of Madrid for an extension until the end of July 2010, so as to resolve the problem.  At this point the Prosecution asked what problem she was referring to?  In response, Begoña told the court that they did not have information on how the 31,000 Euros was spent   and they had a letter from the Region of Madrid that if GAMCOTRAP fails to account for the amount, they should pay for all the 129,000 Euros provided to the Project.  
During cross examination, Defence lawyer Amie Bensouda Begoña told the court that GAMCOTRAP did sent Yolocamba Solidaridad a proposal in 2007 through two sisters, Patricia Eglesias and Cristina.  When asked to identify a copy of the Proposal, Begoña said she was not sure and that the copy Yolocamba received is in their archive in Spain, what she had with her is what she sent to the Region Madrid.  It was at this point, the defence applied for an adjournment to give the witness an opportunity to bring in a copy of the proposal GAMCOTRAP gave Yolocamba Solidaridad.  Prosecution Joof objected to the adjournment on the basis that the witness was supposed to return to Spain.
Principal Magistrate Taiwo Ade Alagde ruled that the witness who earlier said she was to return on Monday but later said it would be Tuesday, to bring her ticket for the court to confirm when the exact date and time for her return was.   The case was adjourned to Monday, 31st January 2011 at 4.00 PM.
This was the first time GAMCOTRAP was in court without the Police Intervention Unit having to array in the court premises.  Despite Saturday being a national cleaning day and transports restricted between the hours of 9.00 AM – 1.00 PM, the court was full with families and friends.  For the first time the Spanish Embassy representative in Banjul was present in court but left in the middle of the questioning by the Prosecution Officer.  Some unidentified people also showed up at a time when public transports were restricted from moving about. This raised suspicion that some of them are members of the National Intelligence Agency - NIA.  Amie Bensouda was aided in court by Lawyer Ebrima Jah.

Court Hearing of Monday, 31st January 2011
“I did not accuse anybody of theft, I did not report anybody to the Police nor brought them to Court”, Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad, Begoña Ballesteros told Court in Banjul regarding GAMCOTRAP Senior Officials
Reminded that she was still under oath, the cross examination of the PW8, the Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad, Begoña Ballesteros Sanchez continued at the Banjul Magistrate court in Banjul on Monday, 31st January 2011.   The Spanish NGO on whose behalf the Gambia government is prosecuting two GAMCOTRAP senior officials, Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho.  
During cross examination, Begoña  was referred to exhibit G which is her statement sent  to Daniel Giddings  said she made an error about the figure she gave in her statement which is marked and the Cooperation Agreement with GAMCOTRAP.  
Defence Lawyer Amie Bensouda asked how civil matters are addressed in Spain and she responded that the expertise of a lawyer is sought to settle matters between two parties.  The Defence asked her why she did not do the same in the Gambia, Begoña told the court that she was advised to go to the authorities and they asked her about her work in the Gambia and she told them.  She was then asked to write about her work which she did.    
She took the court by surprised when she told the court that she did not accused the two of theft and did not report them to the Police nor brought them to court.   All she did was report Yolocamba Solidaridad’s work in the Gambia to the authorities and she was asked to write.  Begoña claimed that she only had about the prison custody of the GAMCOTRAP officials on the media.  
The witness added that she had no doubt that GAMCOTRAP spent the money but all she wanted was to give her information on how the money was spent with invoices and copies of contracts signed.  
At this point the Defence gave her a document which she identified and as defence applied to tender it , the Prosecution Officer Joof, objected for the document to be tendered  but also objected for it to be withdrawn because he said the document was from GAMCOTRAP and  it was not the original.    Defence Counsel withdrew her application and said it was only meant for I.D., which Prosecution Joof did not understand.    
Principal Magistrate explained to Joof what was meant by I.D purpose in legal terms and the case was adjourned to 1st February 2011, at
It was interesting that this was the second time the Police intervention Unit was not present since the GAMCOTRAP case started.  The case continues to attract public interest and the court room was once again packed full, amongst them, official of the US embassy in the Gambia.  Mrs Bensouda was supported by Lawyer Ebrima Jah.

Court Hearing on Tuesday, 1st February 2011
Despite not happy with GAMCOTRAP’s implementation of the 2009 Project, Yolocamba Solidaridad sent a second and third transfer of funds  for the project and further sent money to start a Second phase project for 2010.
On the third day of cross examination of primary witness in the allegation of theft against GAMCOTRAP officials, Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang- Sissoho, the Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad, PW8 Begoña Ballesteros Sanchez told the court that no extra funds was given to GAMCOTRAP for a conference and that Maria Jesus Rodrigues Gayol did tell her (Begoña) that the Dropping of the Knife in December 2009 was successful.  An I.D ‘A’ was tendered and it made reference to the success of the celebration in an email Jon sent to all of them and GAMCOTRAP.   Defence Counsel Bensouda then put it to Begona that what she wrote in her statement referring to a brief but tense meeting with GAMCOTRAP was a lie.   Also she told the court that in 2009 GAMCOTRAP visited Spain to share its work with the Spanish but denied it was a fundraising strategy by Yolocamba Solidaridad.     She further asked her why would a Spanish NGO invite a Gambia organization to Spain if it is not for fundraising.  In her response Begoña said to share their work on women’s rights.  
Defence Counsel Amie Bensouda further asked Begoña to identify the people in the picture presented to her and later applied for them to be I.Ds.  “these are two handsome men” Begoña said with sarcasm.  Mrs. Bensouda insisted on her identifying the people in the picture and she finally identified them as Jon (Lázaros) Technical staff of Yolocamba Solidaridad and Musa (Jallow) Finance Officer of GAMCOTRAP working in GAMCOTRAP office during Jon’s first visit in January 2010.  
Prosecution Officer, Superintendent Sainey Joof aided by Cadet ASP Manneh objected to the pictures to be tendered as I.D but it was overruled by Magistrate Taiwo Ade Alagde and they were tender as I.D ‘B1’ and ‘B2’.  The pictures show Jon and Musa working in GAMCOTRAP office.   
Begoña also told the court that Yolocamba made three payments contrary to the Cooperation agreement with GAMCOTRAP according to which the first payment should be made after the signing of the Cooperation agreement and the second six months after the Interim report has been received and certified by Yolocamba.    She told the court that Yolocamba did not follow that Cooperation agreement because “GAMCOTRAP told me they have economic problem” Lawyer Bensouda questioned asked when the interim report was due and she responded that it was due in August 2009.  She was asked if it was not unprofessional to sent GAMCOTRAP the second transfer of funds in April 2009 when it was neither six months into the project nor did Yolocamba receive an interim report in April 2009.  Begoña in her response said “Not exactly, they told me they had economic problems” and emphasised Yolocamba did not receive any report from GAMCOTRAP.    
To further establish that Yolocamba was unprofessional, Defence Counsel put it to Begoña that Yolocamba did not receive reports about micro credit from GAMCOTRAP because GAMCOTRAP never implemented a micro credit project and therefore cannot give invoices and report on it.   When Lawyer Bensouda asked if GAMCOTRAP submitted another project for 2010, Begoña responded in the positive and also informed that court that the project was approved, and confirmed that 1000 Euros were sent to GAMCOTRAP’s account.   She was asked why Yolocamba Solidaridad would send money to GAMCOTRAP the final payment for 2009 when it still did not receive any report from GAMCOTRAP even further transferred funds for a Second Phase project for 2010, when they were not happy with the implementation of the first project.   The defence applied for an adjournment  and told the court that she would finish cross examination of the witness during the next hearing but the Prosecution objected and wanted the Defence to finish her cross examination today.  Principal Magistrate Alagde overruled on the grounds that the witness has confirmed that her ticket has been extended to Friday night.  He finally adjourned the case to Thursday 3rd February 2011 at 3.00 PM.   
The Defence Counsel was Lawyers Amie Bensouda, Ebrima Jah and Lamin Mboge.

Add comment

Dear reader,
Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Jollof News.
Jollof News accepts no legal responsibility or otherwise for their accuracy of content. This forum is not supposed to be a channel for the promotion of hate, tribalism or any other kind of personal grievances.
We therefore urge you to keep your posts relevant to the topic to ensure keeping the forum conducive for a healthy debate.
Jollof News reserve the right to delete or edit a post that violates these guidelines.
Thank you.


Security code
Refresh

Mob No: +44 (0)7400130000|Accessibility|Terms of Use|Sitemap|Comment on an article
Copyright © 2012, JollofNews - Online | Powered & Administered by: BT Web Consult & Build