Mrs. Saho, this is the most bizarre ‘ruling’ I have ever seen in my life. No
wonder Ousainou Darboe said that he was ‘flabbergasted’ by this ruling.
Darboe has been a member of the Bar for more than twenty years. Together,
his experience at the Bar coupled with that of Ousman Sillah (Dumo’s lawyer)
span almost four decades. I can bet that none of these gentlemen can tell
you that they ever witnessed a situation where a Chief Justice would
(willy-nilly) remove a judge from a case simply because the prosecution
‘asked’ for the removal. This is simply outrageous. Even if this was a mere
civil case where somebody’s liberty is not at stake, you do not just remove
judges from cases and in effect delay trials. Here we have people
languishing in jail for the most serious charges one can face in the
country, and all you have is judges passing the case from one court to
another because they do not have the guts to do what is right. If my memory
serves me right, the next court room would perhaps be the fourth court room
these defenseless Gambians would have stood before in this endless saga over
a crime they did NOT commit.

No judge in the country wants to hear the case. The reason they do not want
to hear the case is simple. There is no way a court can convict these
innocent citizens over the testimony of that little Italian rat; and that is
all the ‘case’ the government got. All this stalling is just because the
prosecutors do NOT have anything against the accused persons. And now this.
Foreign prosecutors being used by despicable characters like Joseph Joof to
railroad innocent Gambian citizens. They want to remove the case from a
Gambian judge and give it to a foreigner that do NOT have to face the
society at large if he lynches these innocent citizens. Here we have a Chief
Justice whose appointment is even questionable. One of the first things the
man did in his official ‘acting’ capacity is to hand down the most ludicrous
ruling in Gambian jurisprudence. And Grant was too eager to pass the buck
and would NOT even protest this patently erroneous ruling kicking him out of
the case. Months ago I predicted here that Grant was going to pass the buck.
He did exactly that. I would NOT be surprised if it turns out that Grant
himself asked Joseph Joof to apply for his removal from this case. That is
the kind of people we have in our judiciary. Anybody that doubted that we
still have a Dictatorship back home and that we do NOT have an independent
judiciary, need not look too far. Just follow this case.

Here we have an Italian rat lying about innocent Gambians because he wants a
contract with Yaya. NIA being the thugs and morons they are just bite the
rat’s bait and abducted innocent citizens. At first they lied about
kidnapping these citizens. Then they admitted holding them. They held them
for months, incommunicado. They blatantly violated court orders and continue
to hold these innocent citizens without charge. Finally, they charged them
with the most bizarre charges under the circumstances. Knowing that they can
NEVER substantiate those charges in open court, they continue to deprive
these citizens of a trial in open court. No judge wants to hear the case. If
this is NOT Dictatorship and an Impotent judiciary, then I do not know what
is.

Mrs. Saho, please find solace in the fact that your husband’s accusers will
NEVER muster the courage to face him and accuse him in open court. They have
NOTHING on the man. Even behind bars he is still more powerful than them. He
has the TRUTH on his side. He is a POLITICAL PRISONER.
KB



>From: Annika Renberg <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd: Observer on the Dumo case
>Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 15:22:05 +0100
>
>OBSERVER Wednesday, March 6, 2002
>
>Dumo Saho, others treason trial takes dramatic turn case to be reassigned
>to another High Court Judge
>
>The treason trial of Momodou Dumo Saho, Momodou Marena, Ebrima Barrow,
>Ebrima Yarbo, Lt Lalo Jaiteh and Lt Omar M Darboe, yesterday took a
>dramatic turn at the High Court in Banjul when the presiding judge, Justice
>Grante, informed the court that the state had made a request for the
>transfer of the matter to another judge.
>
>In a letter addressed to the presiding judge, Justice Wallace Grante, among
>others, the state requested that the matter be reassigned to another Judge
>in the High Court in Banjul. Defence Counsel, Lawyer Ousman Sillah
>indicated that it was very unfortunate for the state to have made such a
>request at this time. He said the accused persons have been languishing in
>prison for over one year now.
>
>Lawyer Sillah argued that the decision made by the state to reassign the
>case to another judge now, was subjective since no reason was advanced by
>the state. He further argued that though he was indisposed for sometime, it
>could not have been the reason for the delay in the court proceedings.
>
>Lawyer Ousainou Darboe on his part, disclosed that he was flabbergasted by
>the move taken by the state. Darboe further disclosed that it was the first
>time to see a request of this kind in his short career at the Gambia bar.
>Lawyer Darboe argued that the acting Chief Justice should not have minuted
>the letter to the presiding judge without the director of public
>prostitution giving any reason why it wanted the case transferred to
>another judge. Darboe stated that the move was a direct attack on the
>integrity of the judge. He further argued that the state should have filed
>an affidavit or make an application for the matter to be transferred to
>another judge.
>
>On his part, Chief Akomaye Agim, director of public prosecution (DPP) said
>he respected the integrity of the court, noting that it was incorrect for
>the defence counsel to assert that the state must give reasons why it
>wanted the matter to be transferred to another judge. DPP however argued
>that the state may or may not have reasons as to why it wanted to transfer
>the matter to another judge.
>
>The presiding Judge, Justice Wallace Grante, declared that he had no
>objection to the request made by the state to have the matter transferred
>to another judge. Justice Grante however gave the assurance that the
>accused persons would be informed in due course when the case is reassigned
>to another judge.
>
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