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Military officers, others robbery trial resumes

Feb 9, 2011, 11:55 AM | Article By: Malamin Conteh

The criminal trial involving two military officers and others resumed yesterday at the High Court in Banjul before Justice Amadi.

The accused persons are Amadou Bailo Camara, Mamkamang Sanneh, Mamadi Darboe, Sgt Bala Musa Saidy and Modou Lamin Bah.

They were alleged to have on 22nd May 2008, at Kerr Serign in the Kombo North district with actual violence, robbed one Mamout Ceesay of €14,000. They had since denied the charge.                    

In his testimony, the eighth prosecution witness, Sergeant M. Sonko, a police officer attached to Banjul ferry terminal police station said he knew the two military officers when he was in the army.

He said on 21st October 2008, he was on duty at the charge office when the accused persons were brought by the military police with some amount of cash.

“I was then instructed to obtain a cautionary statement from the two military officers, but the accused person preferred to write their own statement after reading the cautionary wording to them in the English language,” Sergeant Sonko explained.

He adduced that the accused persons signed their statements.

The statements were admitted and tendered in court as exhibits without any objection from the defence.

Under cross-examination by defence Borry S. Touray, the witness told the court that the contents of exhibit 9 is half a kilo of drugs, and the content of exhibit 10 is also half a kilo of drugs.

When asked by the defence as to what type of drug it was, the presiding judge overruled that question, saying the witness is not an expert.

The case continues.