By: Nicholas Bass
Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the Banjul High Court on 19 November 2024, granted a D500,000 bail to two alleged attackers of Sub-Inspector Binta Taal of the Gambia Police Force.
Sub-Inspector Taal was allegedly attacked at Westfield and its diverse places within the Kanifing Municipality.
According to court records, Modou Lamin Dibba and Lamin Ceesay on or about 23 July 2024, at Westfield and diverse places within the Kanifing Municipality, allegedly with the intent to intimidate, annoy, unlawfully and wilfully assaulted and threatened to kill Sub-Inspector Taal on her hand and all over her body, causing her actual bodily harm.
In a marathon ruling last week on the bail applications of Dibba and Ceesay, Justice Jaiteh recalled that the originating summons dated 25th and filed 26 September 2024, Dibba and Ceesay, through defense lawyer Baboucarr Bouye, sought from the court bail, pending the hearing and determination of the case at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court. Justice Jaiteh said the defense lawyer’s originating summons was supported by an affidavit of 15 paragraphs sworn to by one Sirah Saho on 26 September 2024 and was attached to the supporting affidavit that was certified by the criminal charge sheet of Kanifing Magistrates’ Court.
Consequently, the state lawyer M. Singhateh filed an affidavit in opposition of three paragraphs sworn to by one Safiatou Bah on 18 October 2024, following the accused persons’ lawyer’s nine-paragraph affidavit sworn to by Sirah Saho on 21 October 2024.
”It is the submission of learned counsel for the applicants that the offence alleged are bailable offences and urged this court to exercise its discretion in granting bail to the applicants. In response to the application, counsel for the respondent also relied on the affidavit in opposition and admitted that the offences alleged are bailable offences,” Justice Jaiteh said.
In his ruling on the bail application, Justice Jaiteh said that he had carefully read all the paragraphs of the affidavit in support of the application and the affidavit in opposition, as well as the averments in the affidavit in reply. He stated that the proper determination of the application sought by the defenselawyer was centered on whether the accused persons should be granted bail under the circumstances, adding that the nature of the charge and the available evidence at the stage of bail,pending trial should, therefore, be considered and understood with a clear view in mind of the presumption of innocence of the applicants provided for in Section 24 (3) (a) of the 1997 Constitution.
”So, in my respectful view, provided the offence charged is not one for which bail cannot be granted; the nature of the charge and the available evidence should ordinarily be used, not so much as a bar to granting bail, but more as a guide to the conditions of bail to be imposed by the court in considering the application for the bail,” said Jaiteh.
He stated that: “Given the foregoing, I will grant the applicants bail under the following terms: that bail is granted to each of the applicants [accused persons] in the sum of D500,000.”
Meanwhile, Lamin Ceesay is separately charged for allegedly stealing Inspector Taal’s mobile phone valued at D6,500 on or about 23 July 2024, at Westfield and diverse places within the Kanifing Municipality.
