Here are the charges against Dumo and others.
1. Conspiring (between March 1999 to June 2000) to overthrow the government
by unlawful means and
2. "…Between the months of March 1999 to June 2000 attempted to cause the
death of the Head of State with a view to securing the overthrow of the
Government of The Gambia."
After reading the newspaper and seeing the charges filed against the latest
alleged coup plotters, I began to understand why the government is afraid to
go to court and face real lawyers. Instead they sneaked behind people's
backs and run to inexperienced magistrates in order to get bogus charges
filed against law-abiding citizens. This is pathetic. If these are the only
charges, then we are dealing with the weakest charges in the book. Am no
criminal lawyer but I know that these inchoate offenses, in this context,
further shows that the illegal government is grappling at straws in order to
continue unlawfully detaining innocent people. Every good criminal lawyer
will tell you that it is extremely difficult to prove that someone is
'attempting' to commit an offense. One of the reasons it is difficult to
prove the attempted commission of an offense, is that people's actions can
hardly be regarded as unequivocal. Someone can even be caught pointing a gun
at another person and yet still escape attempted murder charges. The reason
being, the holder of the gun might know that the gun is unloaded and
therefore cannot kill anybody. So, you see, the pointing of the gun to the
potential victim, is not an unequivocal act. The handler might have just
intended to scare the victim. This simple illustration is just given in
order to illustrate how difficult it is to make attempt charges stick. There
are other tests that prosecutors use in order to prove such inchoate
offenses. There is also what they call the 'last act' test; viz, did the
perpetrator commit the last act that was necessary from his/her point of
view to commit the full offense; in this case, murder and overthrow of Yaya.
I can bet my last penny that the inefficient counsel we have at AG chambers
can never succeed in proving these offenses in the face of brilliant lawyers
like Sillah and Joof. No way. The joint enterprise required for the
conspiracy offense is also extremely difficult to prove. We do not even know
whether these people know each other that well. There is information that
two or three of them know each other or are family. But does that kind of
familiarity amount to a common enterprise aimed at killing Yaya and
overthrowing his government? Do these people have the wherewithal to
overthrow a government? If it is impossible for them to commit the final
act, then they cannot be charged with these inchoate offenses. If the people
allow these charges to stick, then all ordinary Gambians are in trouble.
That means that the government can always come up with the flimsiest excuses
in order to put opponents behind bars. Anyone that say that they do not like
the criminal behavior of Yaya would be vulnerable to such bogus charges.
Reading these charges confirms more and more the lawlessness in Gambia and
the culpability of the people that facilitate this lawlessness. People like
Pap Cheyassin Secka, Wowo, Thomasi and Roche. All these people together with
the chief justice and the judge that gave the ruling against Mr. Sillah's
client, know that these charges cannot stick in any decent court room. Why
did they decide to mortgage their souls to the devil? The lawlessness in The
Gambia is intolerable. The government and the courts might as well throw the
law books in the sea if they are going to make these charges stick. The more
I think about this, the more upset I get at that magistrate that would not
ask for enough evidence before leveling these charges. So far, the evidence
we know is extremely weak. The NIA was probing Dumo's travel habits. Yeah
the guy traveled from place to place. Does that mean that he's plotting to
get rid of Yaya? That is ludicrous, to say the least. This man was working
hard to put Gambian Children to school. It is more logical to relate his
travel habits to his job than to a plot to overthrow the government by
force. It is trite that when a particular piece of evidence points to more
than one direction, it should be interpreted in the light most favorable to
the accused person. Am glad that the government detected their stupidity and
let that Bokaloho volunteer go. I understand that Lalo and Kanteh are
family. Does that mean that whenever they talk, they are plotting to remove
Yaya? If Lalo was plotting to kill Yaya since March 1999, why would he stay
as his bodyguard all this time? Am sure the able defense lawyers will take
note of this date and force the AG to prove the facts he alleged. It just
doesn't make sense. As for the taped conversations, I do not even believe
that they exist. But if they do, they would be mere words. Did the tape
record all the accused persons incriminating themselves. What does the law
say about illegally obtained evidence? I do not hear the AG charging Yaya
and members of the July 22 Movement with conspiracy to murder and attempted
murder when Yaya threatened on national TV to murder his opponents. The AG
can easily have a tape of Yaya's statements. Is the AG going to charge Yaya
and his cohorts with conspiracy, attempt and incitement? NO. What Yaya did
was even more serious than what someone might have said on tape (if at all
something was said). Yaya and his cohorts have acted on such utterances
before by attacking their opponents. As far as Yaya is concerned, he has
performed the 'last act' when he incited his people to attack opponents.
From my lay understanding of the criminal law, he should be guilty of
attempted murder or kidnapping and assault. Better still, the opposition
should record Yaya's words and next time one of Yaya's thugs act on those
inflammatory words, the opposition should agitate for Yaya to be charged
with conspiracy and incitement. No one should be above the law. Is the AG
going to charge Yaya and his cabinet for conspiracy and attempt in relation
to the massacre of our children on April 10 and 11? Yaya said that while he
was in Cuba, he was talking to the people on the ground that were giving the
'shoot to kill' orders directly to the animals that butchered our children.
The fact of the matter is that the evidence against Dumo and Co does not
even reach the prima facie threshold, let alone unloading the burden set on
the prosecution to prove offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. The government
is breaking the law each day these people are held in jail and disallowed
any contact with their families and friends. This can only happen in a
lawless society like the one we have now. The families of the accused
persons should not despair. They should only ensure that the rule of law is
followed in the courts. I am confident that if they have a decent judge with
a clean conscience, Sillah and Joof will run the prosecutors out of court
with these spurrious charges. Mrs. Saho is doing great trying to publicize
this lawlessness. Every decent Gambian should do the same. If we showcase
their lawlessness, it might force some judges (especially those foreigners)
to do the right thing and dismiss these charges. We respectfully encourage
Joof and Sillah to continue what they have been doing by countering the lies
this illegal government is trying to peddle. We trust that if and when their
clients are given their day in court, they will come up with arguments
better than anyone can mention at this stage.
KB
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