Habibatou Jallow, wife of Modou Korka Jallow, charged with rape before
Justice Amadi of the Special Criminal Court in Banjul, told the court recently
that she came to testify in her husband’s case so that “nothing could happen to
him”.
In her testimony, she told the court the accused is her husband and she did not know the victim.
The victim came to the shop with her father and said she was pregnant by her husband and her husband denied knowing her, she said.
The victim and her father went out of the shop to see the landlord’s wife and they talked for a while, she said, adding that her husband sells ‘nopal’ and rice per cup in the shop.
Mrs Jallow added that she had four children with the accused and there is nothing between his shop and where she lives, adding that her husband would always leave the house in the morning and return home around 7p.m.
Under cross-examination by the DPP, the witness said she had been married to her husband for 11 years and she has been the only wife to her husband.
She said she had been attending the trial since it started and when her husband gave his testimony, she was outside the courtroom.
They have only one shop, which she is in charge of, she told the court, adding that her husband only comes to the shop to sleep.
She said the shop is a joint-ownership by her and her husband, and when the victim came to the shop with the father, she was there.
She said the allegation was that her husband impregnated the victim and the husband denied it.
She did not know the victim and her mother but the victim’s father used to come to the shop.
She did not know how many ‘Fula shops’ are around that area but there are other shops and she is not a child and would not lie.
According to the charge sheet, the accused, in April 2013, at Bundung in the KMC, had unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor without her consent.