Mr Dibba, the accused, is a senior executive member of the United Democratic Party. He was charged with seditious intention under section 51(1)(a), punishable by section 52(1)(b) and (c) of the Criminal Code volume one laws, of The Gambia 2009.
The charge was on Wednesday challenged by the accused's defence counsel Borry S. Touray before the accused took his plea. He told the court that the charge against the accused section 51(1) is only a definition of the section or provision, adding that section 52 is the correct provision criminalising sedition.
Following the submissions from both Ebrima Dibba's legal team and the representatives of the IGP, Principal Magistrate Krubally yesterday delivered a ruling in favour of the defence team.
“In the light of foregoing, I come to the flow of conclusion that section 51(1) of the Criminal Code couched by the prosecution to charge the accused herein is a definition section, absolutely wrong in charging the accused under these circumstances.”
He added: “I entirely agree with the learned Senior Counsel B.S. Touray that the correct section to be invoked in charging the accused is section 52 as the offence creating section. Since I take note of prosecution’s effort yet to reference Section 52 as punishable section to the definition section to charge the accused will not warrant me to strike out this matter for want of complete incompetence."
Principal Magistrate Krubally ordered the prosecution to amend the charge.
Representing the IGP, Superintendent A. Manga subsequently applied section169 of the Criminal Code to amend the statement of offence from section 51(1)(a) to section 52(1)(b) &(c) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which was not objected to by the defence counsel and the application sought by the prosecution was accordingly granted by the magistrate pursuant to Section 169 of the CPC. And the accused was asked to take his plea.
However, the defence counsel A.A. Bensouda informed the court that the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.
In response, the prosecution said the accused should be allowed to take his plea himself since “the matter of plea in their view is fundamental”.
Sequel to the application of the prosecution, the presiding Magistrate said that in the view of the court, since it was only the statement of offence that is amended but particulars remain, the defence counsel as the mouthpiece of the accused could inform the court about the plea of the accused, saying that “does not affect the Court's procedure in any way”.
The bail of the accused was accordingly extended.
The accused Ebrima Dibba has thus been charged with seditious intention under section 52(1)(b) and (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
The case was adjourned until 2 July 2024.
