GAMBIA: GAMBIA SACKS JUDGE HANDLING POLITICAL MURDER CASE.

BANJUL, July 28 (Reuters) - A Gambian judge who referred an opposition leader
and 24 other people to the supreme court for trial on murder charges has been
sacked, government officials said on Wednesday.
The sources declined to be named and would not say why magistrate Borry Touray
had been dismissed.
Touray was the presiding magistrate who a week ago referred to the supreme court
murder charges against Ousainou Darboe, leader of the main opposition United
Democratic Party, along with 23 party activists and a journalist.
The group were arrested on June 19 in Basse, 400 kms (250 miles) east of the
capital Banjul, after a weekend disturbance in which a government supporter was
killed.
Touray said he did not have the authority to hear a murder case. The supreme
court in Banjul released all 25 on bail.
The government sources said that the judicial secretary of Basse and four
employees of the Basse Area Council had also been fired, allegedly because they
had attended a UDP meeting which was held before the fight.
Until his arrest Darboe had been campaigning in the east of the tiny West
African country for local elections set for November 16.
He said government supporters had hurled stones at him and his companions when
they stopped to dismantle a road barricade.
Police said a supporter of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and
Construction (APRC) was killed in the fight which ensued.

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