Pa Nderry Mbai & Ousman Darboe
Banjul

The seven fire officers charged with the murder of Ebrima Barry, a former grade 10 student of Forster Senior Secondary School, Brikama, yesterday walked out of the High Court free men, after they were acquitted and discharged. The seven firemen, Ousman Nyaokey, Alhagie Secka, Amadou Badjie, Momodou Colley, Kebba Conteh, Samba Sawo, and Wury Jallow were arrested earlier last year for allegedly torturing Ebrima Barry to death.

They have since been standing trial. The death of Ebrima Barry was the leading cause of the April 10 and 11 student unrest which resulted in the death of 14 people, including school children.

The unrest also caused the destruction of private and government property estimated at millions of dalasis. Handing down his verdict yesterday, the Justice Timothy Kabalata said the prosecution must prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts, before any case could be established against the accused persons.

Making a reference to various legal authorities, Justice Kabalata maintained that it was the duty of the prosecution to prove its case against the murder suspects. Justice Kabalata recalled the then testimony of Inspector Biram Jobe of the police Serious Crime Unit, who submitted that during the course of his investigations into the alleged murder, none of the prosecution witnesses claimed to have witnessed Ebrima Barry being tortured.

He also referred the court to the testimonies of Sheriff Ceesay, Lamin Ceesay and Dr Omar Sam, the chief pathologist at the RVH, all of whom submitted that there was no evidence of beatings on the body of the late Ebrima Barry. Justice Kabalata also referred to the findings of Dr Sam who reported that Ebrima Barry was suffering from chronic hepatitis.

He ruled that another report by Dr Oldfield which was addressed to the public prosecutor, Nosa Avan, also corroborated Dr Sam's findings. Justice Kabalata said there was nothing in the pathologist's and postmortem reports that linked Ebrima Barry's death to the accused persons.

Consequently, he ruled that the prosecution had woefully failed to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts and acquitted and discharged the accused seven fire officers.

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