Bro KB
Thanks for your piece. However there is something am not getting.
Does this mean that Jaiteh et al were plotting together with Sanneh and
Manneh. The latter two wer arrested in January for similar charges. If so
why did it take six months for their co-conspirators to be arrested? If they
were working independently, that means two groups oof conspirators. This
does not sound sensible to me.
Saul J
>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The Case (or lack thereof) against the Alleged coup plotters
>Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 13:20:16 EDT
>
>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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