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US$1b cocaine case adjourned again
Thursday, 05 August 2010 01:24
By Augustine JattaGambia’s US$1 billion cocaine case could not proceed Wednesday, at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court as prosecution and defense remained trapped in a battle of procedure that does not seem to be anywhere near an ending.
When the case came up for hearing, State counsel Lawyer Jones told the court that the prosecution was ready for the accused persons to take their plea. But as the charge sheet was been read to pave the way for the accused to take their plea, Lawyer Lamin Camara, one the defense
counsels, stood up in vigorous objection to an issue on the charge sheet. Describing it as “duplicitous, ambiguous and uncertain in law”, he drew the attention of the court to the fact that “charges are supposed to be specific and clear” and capable of providing all the necessary information to their clients.According to Lawyer Camara, the charge sheet is “double-dealing” as more than one offense have been declared in the statement of offense and that the accused persons were charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and surreptitiously in “other cocaine and prohibited drugs.”
Challenging the lack of clarity and specificity in the charge sheet, the defense counsel noted that the use of the expressions “other prohibited drugs” as well as “more than two and half tones” reveals vagueness and uncertainty in law.
“The doctrine of certainty and specificity in the criminal legislation and trials is an inevitable sin qua none in law because that tells the accused person precisely what he or she is charge,” for said an inspired Lawyer Camara really in his element.
He further urged the court to strike out the charge or opt for an alternative to order the amendment of the statement of offense.
In fine, the presiding magistrate Hilary Abeke decided to adjourn the proceedings to Tuesday August 11, 2010 for the state counsel to react on the objection made by both Lawyer Lamin Camara and Emmanuel Chime…
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Comments
Do these people think we are dumb?
So we are supposed to believe that somehow 12 non Gambians were able to sneak tons of cocaine into that armed camp called Gambia without the knowledge or involvement of any of our nationals? I find that hard to believe.
“Jalloh singo beh lorring forango kang” How can yaya prosecute employees shipped to Gambia to work on the cocaine shipments so as to conceal the illegal peddling from public awareness? When yaya can ‘detect’ coups planned in foreign lands how CAN he miss up to a $1 Billion cocaine shipment when small canoe-boats transporting migrants to Europe can be detected, arrested & murdered for being in Gambian territory? What about the big-fish-employers like Amadou Samba for example, named to be linked in news reports somewhere else, who’s a business counterpart of yaya jammeh? Yaya himself peddles cocaine as he has been sanctioning Ensa Badjie, Sillahba Samateh & others to sell cocaine for him according to Ensa’s charge sheets in court. What do we see instead; trivial thieving stories prosecutions on Ensa just to deviate from true information being divulged in court on yaya’s own dirty deals.
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