Hearing in the trial of Jankeh Samateh, the sister of Sillaba Samateh, the first prosecution witness in the trial of ex-police chief Ensa Badjie and two others, was yesterday re-scheduled to 1st September 2010 for continuation at the Banjul Magistrates' Court before Magistrate Hilary U. Abeke.
Hearing was postponed last Wednesday 18thth August 2010 after it was announced that the trial magistrates was not feeling well for the past few days.
On 25th August 2010, when the case was supposed to have resumed for hearing, only to be later communicated to the parties that the trial magistrate was said to have been taken part in a weeklong training seminar for Magistrates.
The Counsel for the accused person, L.S. Camara, was in court for the hearing even though his client was not seen in court. However, Counsel Lamin Camara was later informed by the court clerk that the case could not proceed.
Ms. Jankeh Samateh was sometime in August 2010 arraigned before the Banjul Magistrates' Court, charged with aiding a prisoner to escape.
She vehemently denied the charge before she was remanded in custody, pending the outcome of the case.
According to the charge sheet, Ms. Samateh sometime in the year 2010, at Banjul and other places in The Gambia within the jurisdiction of the court, allegedly aided Sillaba Samateh, to escape from lawful custody by taking him on bail from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and facilitated his escape to Holland.
