First Class Kambi of the Brikama Police Station recently testified in the assault causing actual bodily harm trial involving Yusupha Badjinka and Mustapha Bajinka, both residents of Brikama.
Testifying as the second prosecution witness, 1st Class Kambi told the court that he recognised both the accused persons and the complainant.
He told the court that, on 27th May 2010, he was at his office at the Brikama police station when the complainant, Babucarr Sambou, came and lodged a complaint that he was assaulted by the accused persons.
He said, before arresting the accused persons, the complainant was referred to the Brikama Health Centre, where he was treated and discharged, and was issued with a medical document.
The police prosecutor, CPL Camara, applied to tender the said medical document as an exhibit.
Defence counsel OB Mbaye objected to the application made be the prosecution, on the grounds that the medical document cannot be tendered through the police officer, because he cannot explain anything in the medical paper.
However, the presiding Magistrate Nkea overruled the objection made by the defence counsel, on the basis that the complainant was accompanied to the hospital by the police. He, consequently, granted the prosecution's application, and admitted the medical document as an exhibit.
Also testifying, the third prosecution witness, Mariama Sambou, said she is a resident of Brikama Nyambia and that she knows both the accused persons and the complainant.
According to her, on 26th May 2010, she was standing at the veranda of her house when she heard the 1st accused person, Yusupha Bajinka, insulting the mother of the complainant, Babucarr Sambou.
She said the complainant then asked him why he was insulting his mother, and that the 1st accused then told him that "here is not your father's compound. I want you to go back to your father's compound."
Mrs. Sambou told the court that the 1st accused, Yusupha Bajinka, fought the complainant and that the second accused, Mustapha Bajinka, took a stool and hit the complainant on his head, and he fell down.
She said people intervened, and separated them, and the matter was then reported to the Brikama Police Station. The accused persons, she added, were subsequently arrested.
Magistrate Nkea adjourned the case to 9th August 2010 for continuation.
