By Aminata Phidelia Allie
After weeks of preliminary objections and banters between the defence and the prosecution, and a defence boycott over pay, the Court Martial has finally docked a witness in the on-going trial of 14 soldiers on mutiny allegations.
The first prosecution witness (PW1) yesterday testified about how he was ordered to look for three officers, whom, according to a certain Major Kallon, were wanted by the police.
Warrant Officer Class II, Abu Bakarr Dumbuya, who was resident at the 4th Infantry Battalion at Teko Barrack in Makeni, identified all as colleagues in the army and the same battalion at the barracks.
He testified that he saw a group of military officers and other people in mufti on 10 August 2013 who went to the Ordering Room with a document bearing the names of three officers, “and said they wanted them”.
PW1 said he was ordered to look for a certain Private Jalloh, Private Thorlly and 12th accused, Private Musa Fabai.
He said he first saw Private Jalloh, whom he brought to the Major and went in search of the other two. He later saw Private Fabai and handed him to a colleague (Abu) and instructed that he be taken to the Major “as I went in search of the third man on the list”. The witness said he later learnt that Private Thorlly was on his annual leave and had travelled to his village.
“When I came back to report this to Major Kallon I learnt that neither Abu nor Fabai had reached him. I then went in search of Abu. When I found him, he told me the accused had run away from him”.
The witness said he had to lock his colleague up in the guard room as “I told him he won’t be released until Fabai was found for failing to report Fabai’s escape to either me or the Major”.
He said a search team was dispatched to look for the 12th accused and two days later, he was called up by the Intelligence Officer who was part of the team, informing him that the accused had been found.
In-between the witness’s testimony, defence and prosecuting counsels had bitter arguments about what could or could not be admitted in court as evidence. The numerous objections made by the defence lawyers got prosecutor Soyei angry and practically shouting at them in court and exchanging angry facial expressions.
Defence lawyer, Thomas Beah, who cross-examined the witness asked that his statement be shown to him and then tendered to which Soyei objected saying it was the duty of the prosecution to ask a prosecution witness to look at his statement and tender it. He asked for an adjournment so that he could furnish the court with documents supporting his argument. The matter was adjourned to Friday, May 9, when he is scheduled to do just that. The Judge Advocate will rule and defence will then continue with cross examination.
Prior to the witness taking to the box, defence lawyers called for the discharge of the accused persons on grounds that they have been “arbitrarily detained for more than the prescribed period as the Sierra Leone constitution provides”.
Ishmael Philip Mamie told the court presided over by Judge Advocate Otto During, that the “state has all the resources to have tried the accused persons within a reasonable time as required by law”, which, he said, begged the question of why they were held for 8 months without trial.
Mamie noted that the soldiers’ eight months in detention before they were brought before the court was a gross violation of the country’s laws and all human rights laws known to mankind.
Citing Section 17 (1) of the Constitution which provides that no person shall be detained beyond 72 hours unless a court ordered it or the accused is unfit to plead, the defence attorney noted that the accused persons’ continuous detention was neither a court order nor as a result of they being unfit to plead.
He said the language of the Constitution was mandatory “a matter of must” that they be released or brought before a tribunal of competent jurisdiction. He also cited the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965, Rule 4 of the Court Martial Procedure Rule of 2008, Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 5 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights, all of which he said supported the provisions of Sierra Leone’s laws dealing with human rights.
Responding to the application, state prosecutor Gerald Joseph Soyei, opposed to the application saying the defence lawyers could have made a writ of Habeas Corpus. “That is, they could have ordered for their clients’ release when they were still in detention by police,” adding, “it is now too late”.
He said it was Constitutional for accused persons to be detained without trial beyond the stipulated period if they were suspected of having committed or were planning to commit a criminal offence.
The prosecuting counsel added that the accused persons did commit a crime that warranted their continuous detention.
His opposition was upheld by the Judge Advocate.
The 14 soldiers were arrested in August last year at Teko Barracks in Makeni on mutiny allegations. They face an 8 counts charge of conspiracy, mutiny, failure to suppress mutiny and incitement to mutiny. They deny all allegations.
(C) Politico 08/05/14
