The Kiang West District Tribunal in Mandina village recently convicted and sentenced Karamo Kuyateh of Kiang Joli and Modou Lamin Ndaw of Latrikunda Sabiji for unlawful entry into the forest and felling of trees.
The charge sheet stated that Karamo Kuyateh failed to obey orders and wrongfully entered the forest and felled keno trees amounting to full- and-a-half load of a truck.
He accepted liability and pleaded with the court for mercy.
He informed the tribunal presided by the Chief of Kiang West, Omar Gibba, that he felled the trees with intention to buy fishing material on which he makes his living.
He also said that all the farming tools he had in the past were damaged.
The court sentenced him to a fine of D19, 000 in default to serve a three-year jail-term.
Similarly, Modou Lamin Ndaw pleaded guilty to the charges of failure to obey orders from authorities to offload the logs he loaded on board a vehicle.
The trial revealed that he used a chain saw to unlawfully fell the trees in the forest.
However, he explained to the tribunal that he did not disobey the Forestry order to offload the logs from the truck, but he was not able to pay for the cost of labour it required to offload the logs.
The trinunal handed a fine of D41, 000 in default to serve a three-year jail term.
District scribe Sulayman Bah and tribunal members, Aja Jalika, Bamasanneh Camara and Lang Bintu Ceesay, assisted Chief Omar Gibba.
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