By Kebba Jeffang
Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the party leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), and 18 others have faced an additional single 
count charge of conspiracy to commit felony under the amended indictment revealed at the Special Criminal Court in Banjul on Thursday, April 28, 2016.
Before Justice O. Ottaba, the state was represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and others whilst Counsel Antouman A. Gaye and team appeared for the accused persons.
Hadi Saleh Bakum, the DPP, informed the court that this is as a result of their application for amendment of indictment on Wednesday which was granted by the court.
“We have added Massaneh Lalo Jawla to the 19 accused persons making him the 20th accused in the indictment. We have also added conspiracy to the charges making it 7 counts now,” said the DPP.
At this point, lawyer Gaye said they have just been served with the amended indictment while in court. He therefore applied for a stand down to enable them to take a look at the information contained therein in order to reply to the DPP.
The court granted the application and allowed the case to be stood down for 20 minutes.
Upon resumption, Counsel Gaye said they have no objection to the amendment.
Consequently, the court granted the amended indictment and allowed the 20 accused persons to take their plea on the seventh count. The 20th accused person also took plea on all the seven charges.
The matter was adjourned to Thursday, 5th May, 2016 at 10am for hearing.
