Professor Mustapha Ebrima Khalih, a pathologist working at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) in Banjul, on Monday testified in a murder and arson case involving Omar Jammeh and Ebrima Jammeh at the high court in Banjul before Justice Edrissa M’bai.
In his testimony, Khalih when asked whether he could recognize the accused persons responded in the negative, saying that he could not recognized them.
He was further askedwhether he could remember, whether there was anything that had transpired in connection with this case at his workplace, on 5 October 2010.
The witness told the court that, as a pathologist, he writes reports related to murder for the police, adding that with regards to the postmortem report of this particular case, he could only say something about it provided that he has been shown the document.
The state counsel then applied for the postmortem report to be shown to the witness, to refresh his mind on the said document.
However, the defence counsel Lamin Camara objected, saying that it was impossible under the law, as the document was entirely rejected by the court and, therefore, it could not be based on the opinion of anybody.
He said since the postmortem report was rejected by the court earlier on, he was urging the court to dismiss the application made by the stated counsel to show the document to the witness to refresh his mind.
The state counsel then ask ed the witness whether there was a regular record of cases available at the hospital, and the witness replied in the positive, saying that he does write reports related to murder, and sends the copy to the police and kept the other copy; and, also issued death certificates for burial.
At that juncture, the state counsel applied for an adjournment to enable the witness to produce the coroner’s report.
The case was then adjourned till 23 May 2012.
The particulars of offence on count one stated that the accused persons, Omar Jammeh and Ebrima Jammeh, on 4 October 2010 at Bundung Borehole, set fire to the building of one Fatou Badjie and thereby committed an offence.
Count two stated that the accused on the same day and at the same place, caused the death of one Fatou Badjie, when they set her on fire and burnt her, and thereby committed an offence.
The charges were denied by the accused persons.
