By Kebba AF Touray
The Human Rights and Constitutional Matters Committee of the National Assembly has recommended ten years of imprisonment for persons liable and convicted for fraudulent dealings as punishment.
The Committee made this and other recommendations in its report on the Criminal Offences Bill 2020, which lawmakers at the National Assembly are considering.
Clause 246 of the Bill deals with fraudulent dealings with minerals from mines.
He states: “Any person who takes, conceals or otherwise disposes of any ore or any metal or mineral in or about a mine, with intent to defraud any person, commits felony, and is liable upon conviction to an imprisonment of five years.”
After consultations with stakeholders on the Bill, the committee recommended that Clause 246, which deals with fraudulent dealings with minerals from mines, stand part of the bill, “with the amendment that the punishment proposed in the Section be increased from five to ten years of imprisonment.”
Some of the Clauses that the Committee recommended as parts of the bill include Clause 270, which deals with false pretense in obtaining credit, with an amendment that the punishment should be an imprisonment of three years for a person found liable for the offence, as opposed to the one year proposed in the bill.
On Clause 264, which relates to criminal trespass, the Committee recommended that this Clause stands as part of the Bill with the amendments that the word ‘three’ in sub-Clause b, line 2, be replaced with the word ‘thereon’. After the first reading of the Bill on the 22nd of June 2020 and subsequently the Second Reading which was on the 13th of July 2020, the Bill was referred to the Standing Committee for scrutiny and onward report to the Plenary.
However, following the dissolution of the 5th Legislature and the subsequent composition of the 6th Legislature in 2022, the Bill was re-introduced by the Minister for Justice, and then referred to the Committee to continue its scrutiny.
The Bill, as clearly reflected in the Objects and Reasons, seeks to align our criminal justice legislation with current trends by removing all provisions inimical to freedom of speech such as criminal defamation and sedition.
In addition, the Bill also seeks to close a long-standing legal lacuna by expanding the criminal jurisdiction of Gambian courts to offences committed by persons outside the country and who thereafter enter The Gambia, instead of extraditing them for trial in a foreign state.
Parliament in a democracy is the fundamental pillar that promulgates criminal law to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct, as well as safeguard lives and properties of individuals in a state. While giving the Committee’s blessings to this important Bill, the Executive and the Legislature need to ensure that this as well as the Criminal Procedure Bill, is regularly reviewed to respond to emerging issues.
