Sorry abou some confusion in my last post. I hope it's a little clearrer here: Mathew K. Jallow gives the impression that we are about to see a fair trial and if they heed his advice, we may all sit back and relax: “As the trial of Fatou Jaw-Manneh begins, it is necessary to remind every actor on the government side that their duty is to the law; to uphold it and to preserve it. Any effort to skirt it would result to a loss of confidence in our judicial system, which could take years if not decades to recover from.” The implications in the charge sheet are serious. The Government has charged Fatou Jaw Manneh with SEDITION (close enough to treason).Of course it is the intention of the accuser to nail the “evidence” of her seditious intentions onto to her as they nail her on the cross and show that her intentions have crossed the border between legitimate protest and the sort of incitement that did/ could threaten security and stability in the country. To the extent of her wanting to overthrow the elected government by means other than the ballot – unlike Mr. Jammeh who first came by bullet, she is an angel, a Joan of Arc and there’s next to nothing that I’ve ever read in the Gambian press that should ever qualify her for heading a military coup – that would be first degree treason. Litanies about mysteriously dead bodies, corruption, nepotism and violations of human rights occupy most of the opinion columns in the African press. Apart from some guy who once asked whether anyone was “ready to rumble” – my acquaintance is with a Gambian media which is sober in it’s criticism – sometimes harsh criticism, of the type one is likely to find anywhere in the free world and particularly in some places that are not yet, so free. The African temperament, when it expresses itself in art or speech tends to be passionate – even exaggerate - but I don’t think that Fatou, beautiful as she is, is a Queen Amina or Lady Aisha (r.a.) who raised an army against Imam Ali (a.s.) (the Battle of the Camel) http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Queen+Amina&meta= First question: What level of confidence do you have in the Judiciary – not in the qualifications of the judges, but their impartiality? To what extent is the Judiciary independent of the executive in the Gambia? http://www.google.co.uk/search? hl=en&q=the+Gambian+Judiciary&btnG=Search&meta= ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤