The Special Criminal Court at the high court in Banjul, presided over by Justice Ikpala, will on 11 February 2011 decide the fate of the former chief of defence staff, Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba, and ex-chief of naval staff Rear Admiral Sajor Fofana, when he delivers his ruling on the no-case-to-answer submission filed by their defence counsel and the reply filed by state prosecutors.
Tamba and Fofana are being tried on four counts of treasonable offences in connection with the 21st March 2006 aborted coup attempt, allegedly spearheaded by the former chief of defence staff Colonel Ndure Cham.
The charges include conspiracy to commit treason, treason, concealment of treason, which they have denied.
The development followed the adoption of written briefs filed by both the defence and the prosecution, which form part of their argument.
Defence counsel, L.K Mboge and Sheriff M. Tambedou informed the court that they had filed their briefs as part of their argument. The Director of Special Litigation at the Attorney General’s Chambers, Daniel O. Kulo, also informed the court that the state had filed their reply as part of their argument.
The case was at that juncture adjourned till 11 February 2011 for ruling.
The prosecution in order to prove a prima facie case against the accused persons, had called in six prosecution witnesses including Major Momodou Alieu Bah, a former treason convict, but now reinstated in the Army, Modou Manneh, security operative, Timothy Sanyang, another senior military officer, Momodou Sowe, a police officer attached to the major crime unit of the police force who narrated how he obtained the cautionary and voluntary statements from the accused persons, ex-Captain Bunja Darboe, a life sentence serving convict and Yahya Darboe, also a life sentence serving convict.
General Tamba, it would be recalled, was convicted on 15th July 2010 for other treasonable offences alongside seven other men by the high court in Banjul, whereas Fofana was the president of the general court martial that convicted and sentenced 10 men to various prison terms ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment for their role in the 2006 aborted coup attempt.
