Gambia-L:

The e-mail below is from a source in The Gambia.

My Source: In your next e-mail, please do give us more information on who is
this Mr Barrow. I say this because you only referred to him in your mail
below by surname.

Ebrima

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Subject: Update on today's court hearing
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:26:13 +0100

Dear Coach,

Just to inform you that I attended Dumo Saho's court hearing today and I
have to say that the signals being sent by the Judge are a little bit
encouraging.

The Judge, this morning, summoned Mr David Colley, Commissioner of Prisons,
in order for him to tell the Court why Mr Barrow was absent from Court. And,
in reply, he (David Colley) answered by explaining that that was according
to Gambian custom. However, the Judge was really mad at the prosecution,
having listened to Colley's explanation.

All the same, the Judge, in the end, forgave Mr Colley, who did promise that
it should never happen again.

Subsequently, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) asked the Court that
one of the prosecution's key witnesses, Italian Francisco Caso, be allowed
to give his (Fransisco Caso's) statement in Chambers or in secrecy. But the
defense lawyers unanimously rejected the idea and, as a consequence, the
Judge turned down the DPP's application.

Fransiso Caso, by the way, was called by the Judge to testify publicly in
court, but he didn't turn up. So Fransiso Caso's absence from today's
hearing really angered the Judge. In fact, when the DPP tried to get the
case adjourned again, so that he (the DPP) can get Fransisco to testify
tomorrow morning, the judge got mad with him (the DPP).

He in fact told the DPP - in clear language - that Mr Caso has to be in
court tommorow morning (being Wednesday 15 January 2003) to give his
statement.

Coach, the Judge was very tough today with the prosecution team, led by the
DPP himself. Equally, the Judge didn't take any nonsense from David Colley.
He interrupted both men a number of times, saying, among other things, words
like these: "That is not relevant" etc.

Gives you hope, I think. Anyway, I can hardly wait for tomorrow's hearing.

For your information, the court room was full. By the way, it seems that
they have now lifted the ban on reading books for Dumo.

More tomorrow


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