Prosecution not ready in GAVI case

By Aminata Phidelia Allie Lead prosecutor for Sierra Leone’s anti-corruption commission has told a Freetown High Court that they were not ready to begin their case against accused persons alleged to have misappropriated the GAVI Alliance funds at the ministry of health. Reginald Fynn was making an application for the case to be heard and tried by judge alone instead of judge and jury, which was duly granted. He then asked for an adjournment. Of the seven medical officials indicted by the ACC on Thursday 7 March 2013, six were granted bail on Tuesday 9 April by Justice Abdulai Cham of High Court No.1. Appearing in accordance with their indictments, the first set of indictees that stood before the judge included Dr. Mathew Michael Amara, principal health economist at the ministry of health and Sahr Amara, a finance officer in the ministry.Both faced a thirty- eight countcharge. They pleaded not guilty. After the defense made their application, the accused were granted bail in the sum of Le500millioneach plus two sureties in like sum. One of the sureties was to be a property owner in the Western Area and must be willing to surrender his or her titled deed. All travelling documents of the accused persons were to be handed over to the court and the accused persons must seek permission from the master and registrar if they wished to travel out of the jurisdiction.Their matter was adjourned to 19 March 2013. The second set of indictees, who were charged with twenty-two counts included the chief medical officer, Dr. Kizito Daoh, director of primary healthcare, Alhassan Sesay, director of hospital and laboratory services, Dr. Duramany Conteh, director of human resource and nursing services,Dr. A.A.Sandy and the permanent secretary, Edward Bai Kamara. They were each granted bail in the sum of Le100million. The matter was adjourned to 7 May, 2013. (c) Politico 11/04/13