Now I'm really confused. I thought someone indicated and confirmed their release after the arrest? Which is the correct story? Best regards, Ablie Njie-Lekbi Atlanta >From: Momodou Camara <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: FWD:State Brushes Aside Judge's Verdict >Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 13:40:59 -0500 > >State Brushes Aside Judge's Verdict > >The Independent (Banjul) >NEWS >August 2, 2004 >Posted to the web August 3, 2004 > >By Ebrima Sillah & Ahmed Carayol >Banjul > >Barely six hours after a High Court Judge freed three civilians for want of >evidence over charges of treason and conspiracy to commit treason, state >security agents rearrested them for arbitrary reasons suggesting profound >disaffection with the verdict. > >Momodou Dumo Sarho, Basirou Barrow and Ebrima Yarbo who were held >incommunicado for four years were Friday, acquitted and discharged by >Justice Ahmed Belgore for lack of convincing evidence on six counts of >treason, conspiracy to commit treason and concealing information on a >treasonable act. However a curious twist to the tale of the trial ensued >just six hours after, Sarho, Barrow and Yarbo had packed out of their Mile >Two Prison cells to their respective homes. Four plain-clothes security >agents apprehended Dumo Sarho just after dusk while he was in the company >of members of their immediate families and friends who had initially >provoked a standoff with the arresting officers by refusing to let them go. >Basirou Barrow was met in his home in Banjul and whisked away despite the >angry protestations of his family and friends. However, in yet another >curious twist to the same story Ebrima Yarbo was confirmed not to have >suffered re-arrest unlike his co-accused who are still unaccounted for as >family members and friends launched separate search parties Saturday with a >view to tracing and determining where the two long-standing political >prisoners were being held. > >Arresting officers who initially refused to identify themselves demanded to >go with Dumo Sarho but family members and friends insisted that he was not >going anywhere. A protracted push and pull ensued with the officers who >feeling apparently outnumbered, called for reinforcements. > >While the standoff lasted, Dumo's lawyer, Ousainou Darboe was promptly >briefed about the situation through telephone and he reportedly advised >Dumo's family that if his client was going to be physically harmed, then >they should accompany him to the police station. Up to the time of putting >these details into writing neither Dumo nor Barrow had been reported >released nor were any plausible reasons given for their arrest. > >Meanwhile, according to friends of Dumo's, they had made frantic but futile >searches for him as the National Intelligence Agency and Police >Headquarters profusely denied knowledge of his whereabouts. A man who >described himself as a close friend of Mr. Sarho said their re-arrest and >subsequent disappearance may be partially explained by the reluctance of >the accused to return to Mile Two Prisons to formally sign out of custody. >He said after they were discharged, the three men saw little reason to >return to the prisons, preferring instead to walk immediately to freedom, >despite the advise of some of their relatives, friends and sympathisers who >saw it as satisfying "a mere formality" that wouldn't have lasted for more >than one hour. "If this is the reason for them being taken back into >custody, then it shows the knack for pettiness on the part of the >authorities, who should instead apologise and even compensate the three men >for holding them for more than four years without any evidence to show for >it. The court has decided their innocence beyond doubt and if democracy and >the rule of law are respected in this country, they should be set free >without condition" one of Dumo's most trusted contemporaries said. > >Family members who described the government's action as a blithely >deliberate disregard for the rule of law, said there is no doubt as to >their course of action once the court has ruled in favour of the co- >accused. They said they would without doubt file a petition against the >state for Dumo's long-running detention and his re-arrest for a supposed >offense, which the courts have thrown out the window. > >One of Dumo's best friends, who stayed for several years with him in >Sweden, explained that following Dumo's release he had called the >detainee's wife (who flew in from Sweden a day before the judgment) to make >arrangements for what was intended as a quiet dinner with Mr. Sarho. He >said he was waiting for the appointed time when later he was informed that >four men in plain clothes had re-arrested Dumo. > >He described the government's apparent determination to maintain Dumo Sarho >in custody even after the court had cleared him of any wrongdoing, as >betraying the extent to which they can remorselessly use what he >called "dirty tactics" to override the informed decisions of a law court. > >Friday's judgment > >On Friday, High Court Judge, Justice Ahmed Belgore acquitted and discharged >Dumo Sarho, Ebrima Yarbo and Ebrima Barrow on all six counts suggesting >treason. > >Delivering his three-and-half-hour judgment, Justice Belgore said it is an >acceptable principle in every criminal trial that the prosecution must >prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, which in this case was far from it. >Justice Belgore said although the charges against the accused persons were >indeed very serious and called for the death penalty life imprisonment, an >incontrovertible case had never been established against them by the >prosecution. "For somebody to be found guilty of treason or conspiracy to >commit treason, an act has to be committed or about to be committed. And >since this was not proven in court, I can only but acquit and discharge the >accused" Belgore argued. > >Francisco Caso branded an irredeemable liar > >Justice Belgore said the evidence of the chief prosecution witness, >Francisco case, an Italian, was inconsistent, full of contradictions and >could not be relied upon in any credible court of law. Justice Belgore >branded Caso an irredeemable liar who during the trial showed that he was >not a "witness of truth", but instead used deception to entrench himself in >the corridors of power. > >"He has a purely selfish agenda," the judge added. > >Justice Belgore said Caso's evidence in court were completely >contradictory. And when confronted on this by the defence, Caso, according >to the judge said he could neither read nor write in English and that his >statement to the NIA was written for him by his wife. > >However, unwittingly proving his contradiction at one stage of the trial, >Caso had told the court that he read the death of his one time business >partner Toni Cartoni in the Daily Observer. > >Although Caso said he was a member of the Italian army for three years, he >could still not differentiate between the ranks of major and lieutenant. >Caso could not even remember his rank in the army and when he was enrolled >therein. For this reason Justice Belgore said no serious tribunal could >rely on such evidence to make a conviction and therefore saw no reason why >the co-accused should be kept in prolonged custody, promptly acquitting and >discharging them. > >Accused claimed torture > >Meanwhile in the course of the trial one of the accused persons claimed he >was seriously tortured when in detention. Ebrima Barrow even produced a >broken tooth and torn underwear to prove his claim of being tortured. > >He also showed laceration marks on his back, which he said, were as a >result of the torture he went through. The judge said the fact that >Barrow's statement had taken after 72 hours when he should have been >charged and brought before a court of law, proved that the statement was >not recorded under lawful environment. He said he found Barrow to be a >witness of truth because he never second-guessed when he gave evidence. > >Belgore said Barrow's broken tooth was not self-inflicted. Justice Belgore >also condemned the act of the state security officers by transferring >Ebrima Barrow from his Mile Two Prison cell to the NIA headquarters where >he underwent further interrogation. According to Belgore this was against >state policy and good conduct. He said the fact that Barrow's statement was >recorded in that highly suspect environment, renders it non-voluntary. > >He called on the state to always uphold the constitutional and human rights >of those in their custody. > >Missing links > >The judge said he could not understand why important names that Caso in his >statement mentioned like Sheriff Mustapha Dibba and Abdoulie Kujabi were >not called to testify on their meeting with the Italian. The judge also >wondered why the state failed to bring in the people who investigated the >case as witnesses because the police detective who testified during the >trial could not remember the people who investigated the case. > >During the trial Caso told the court that one of the accused persons had >told him that he had weapons stock-piled in a village five miles away from >Kanilai, the birth place of the president. But no investigation was made to >locate the village and the judge wondered why this was not done because >according to him, weapons were going to be very useful for the success or >otherwise of an alleged coup. For this reason, Justice Belgore said it was >a monstrous attempt on the side of the witnesses to mislead the court and >therefore acquitted and discharged the three accused persons. > >Wild Celebrations In The Court Room > >And just as the judge delivered the not-guilty verdict friends and family >members of the accused started hugging each other in wild celebration. Some >of them started chanting "Long live Belgore; justice to the poor; restore >Gambia's long cherished principles of respect for human and people's >rights". > >Lawyers for the accused persons Mai Fatty and Ousman Darboe commended the >judge for standing by natural justice. Mai Fatty went further to say "today >is victory for the oppressed; today the prosecution has a lot to be ashamed >of because you cannot charge people with capital punishment when you don't >have evidence; today is when these innocent people have to go home with >their heads held high; law enforcement has to take stock and realise that >the longest day must come to an end". > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Copyright © 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. 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