The Pakistanis hired chief justice Muhhamed Arif has refused to entertain an injunction request filed by the Gambia press union and three other independent newspapers, the Point, The Independent and the News and Report Magazine to prevent the draconian media Commission from registering its members, reliable sources revealed yesterday. The judge flatly delined to give reason for his refusual to grant injunction to the journalists who out challenge the consitutionality of the media commission legislation, which is designed to silence dissent and end press freedom in the tiny West African country. Hawa Sisay Sabally defence lawyer for the journalists had insisted that the chief justice to provide a written ruling indicating the reasons for his refusual to entertain the suit. The judge promised to give reasons for his action. Another Nigerian high court judge whose appointment was not highly welcomed by the Bar association also dismised a an appilication for the high court to order the judicial commission to recommend to the president for the appointment of judges at the supreme court. The said court has not been sitting for about one year. Most of the judges are either sacked, resigned or forcefully retired. The journalists wanted the supreme court to be fully constituted to enable the fair hearing of their case. But the judge Paul says the Attorney for the plaintiffs adopted the wrong approach in bringing the suit to court. He ruled that the journalists should have lodged a formal request to the judicial service commission before going to court. Well Hawa has since dispatched a letter to the chairperson of the judicial service commission demanding the appointment of judges into the supreme court. Many lawyers are refusing to accept working with the judiciary due to lack of independence. There is a lot of executive interference. In fact the foreign judges from the Nigeria have ceased coming. They are not given the free hand to work. Some after serving their contracts, they left for home. They refused to renew their contracts. The common wealth technical judges are nolonger coming. We seen what happened to justice chomba and Kabalata. These people were not the least happy with what is hapening. Now Joesph Joof had been forced to resigned, they could't get some one to replace him. My sources say most of the people they approached refused to work with the regime. This is a serious situation. That the regime is finding it difficult to get people to work for them. There is no job security in Jameh's regime. AG's never serve for more than two years. I am told that the chief justice's contract is about to expire. Lawyer Ousman sillah was approached, but he flatly refused, said my sources. Lawyer sheriff Tambadou also refused to serve as AG. This is a serious development. The judiciary is last hope for nation and its people. And any attempt to compromise its independence, it could be devastating. Now many people don't have hope in the judiciary. We have seen judicial staff openly declaring their loyality for the regime. A classical case is Magistrate King. He was sent on prigrimage to Mecca. He was rewarded for the what they called"good job" he had been doing for the state. He did stop at that. He end up extorting funds belonging to the state. He is now in America. He dispatched a letter to the chief justice announcing his resignation. Now what will happen to the enquiry set up to probe into magistrate Sanyang's alleagtions of corruption, and abuse office against his colleague king? I think would be a waste venture. King has already bid fare well to his colleagues. He knew had a case to answer and coming back home means going to prisons. He was accused of diveritng courts fines and fees into his personal use. In addition King was also said to be receiving bribes from poor litigants. Judicial officials are expeceted to observe the law and to break the law. If the trend continues many will cease going to court to seek justice, becuse what is happening at the moment is day light robbery. We need a clean society, free of corruption and dictatorship. Peace. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~