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Court admits purported operational plan as evidence

Apr 5, 2023, 11:28 AM | Article By: Ali Jaw & Ismaila Sonko

A purported operational plan of the alleged coup plotters and another document dubbed the deployment of commandoes were yesterday admitted as evidence before the High Court of The Gambia.

The defendants in the trial are: Lance Corporal Sanna Fadera, Sergeant Gibril Darboe, Corporal Ebrima Sannoh and Corporal Omar Njie, all soldiers of the Gambia Armed Forces, and Gambian police Sub-inspector Fabakary Jawara.

They were first arraigned in early January on charges of treason and concealment of treason, amongst others.

Continuing his testimony yesterday, after having already appeared and testified over three times prior, Police Superintendent Jally M.I. Senghore told the court that one phone belonged to the first accused, the other to the second accused person, one phone to the third person and two to the fourth accused person Omar Njie.

He also affirmed to the court that he could identify the phone of the 1st accused, saying: "It is labeled and his name is on it.”

The witness eventually identified the phone before the court.

"My lord, we are objecting to the admission of all the phones, whether they are here or not," Counsel L.S. Camara objected when State Counsel A.M. Yusuf applied to tender the mobile phones as evidence.

"My lord, according to the list we were served what is written there is a phone - singular. Also, the labels of the phones were not indicated, whether it is Samsung, Nokia [or so]."

State Counsel Yusuf urged the court to proceed, saying if that is the problem, he would later serve them with the list of the mobile phones

"No objection, my lord," L.S. Camara finally said.

Proceeding, Counsel Yusuf asked the witness: "Can you tell me what transpired between you and Karamo Jatta during the course of investigation?"

"Karamo was invited... He showed us a phone, which contains audio conversations with the first accused, photos of goods and documents containing operational plan and deployment of commandoes," Mr. Senghore responded.

He added that he eventually obtained hard copies of the documents, while the audio conversations between him (Karamo Jatta) and 1st accused person (Sana Fadera) "were transferred to a flash drive from the phone of Karamo."

"After that, Karamo wrote his own witness statement,” Mr. Senghore testified.

"You also made mention of hard copies of the documents of operational plans and deployment of commandoes?” Counsel Yusuf asked once more, and the witness answered in the positive, saying he could identify the document, before he was again asked whether he could identify them.

“Yes, it is a three-page document containing an operational plan and the deployment of commandoes.”

With no objection from the defence, the state was granted the application to tender the said document into evidence as exhibit P11.