News about the movement in Ousman Sabally's civil case against the
government regarding the massacre on April 10 and 11, 2000, just goes to
show how sick the Gambian legal system currently is. I was very encouraged
when I learnt that Hawa Sisay (representing her husband, Ousman Sabally)
subpoenaed the Solicitor General to produce the Commission's report in
court. This is a test case. We will see whether the judge in this matter
will have the guts to enforce court rulings. If Raymond Sock treats the
court with contempt and refuses to produce the report, would he be thrown in
jail for criminal contempt of court because he is engaged in a cover up?
Time will tell.

Another thing about this case is that Hawa Sisay's brother-in-law is the
government's chief legal adviser. Is Joseph Joof going to be a  recusant and
not participate in this case? Or is he going to disown his family and advise
the government on ways to ensure that Sabally is denied justice? This is
just sickening.

In any case, other victims of the massacre should take a cue from this and
step on the peddle on their civil suits. The legal defense team that was
looking after the interest of the victims, should continue to pursue ways of
bringing this matter to the courts. I need not tell them that they have a
lighter burden to carry in civil suits when compared with criminal cases. It
goes without saying that real lawyers will have no problems showing the
culpability of the government in this matter. At the very least, civil suits
will bring some degree of closure to the families of the massacred victims.
The families will hopefully get a neutral forum where they can air their
grievances and unlike the Commission of Inquiry, they will not allow
government officials to come in and lie about our dead heroes (blaming them
for their deaths). At the end of the day, criminals might not be jailed
after the civil suit, but the government will pay in a big way for their
heinous behavior on April 10 and 11, 2000 when children as young as three
were massacred in broad daylight by government security forces acting on the
orders of Yaya.

Finally, I commend Hawa Sisay for her stance. This is evidence that one can
serve Yaya and then turn ones life around and do good things.
KB

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