By Lamin Fatty reporting from Basse
Justice Landing M. Sanneh, the trial judge in the Koina caste scuffle case has asked lawyers in the case to be punctual and stop wasting the court’s time.
He threatened that he will not take it lightly if any lawyer holds the court to ransom anymore. This came following Lawyer K. Jallow’s apology to the court on her numerous absences in court. Lawyer Jallow made the apology on Thursday 22nd April 2021 before the Basse high court. The apology was accepted by the Judge. Meanwhile, the Judge took time to address the Defence lawyers as well as the prosecution lawyers to come to court, adding failure of which he will take the necessary measures.
Lawyer K. Jallow cross-examined prosecution witness two – Mariatou Suko, the wife of Muhammed Sanneh, whose house was allegedly set ablaze. She said her husband was arrested after the incident.
“Do you know why he was arrested?” asked Lawyer Jallow.
“No, I did not know because he did nothing,” the witness answered.
“Do you want this court to believe that your husband did nothing?” the Lawyer asked.
“Yes, I want this court to believe that because he did nothing, in fact, he was the one, whose house was set ablaze,” Suko responded.
“I am telling you that your husband was arrested and charged for the gun shot he did which caused fire in the house,” the Lawyer said.
“I never believe your that statement, because I never ever saw a gun with my husband and the fire that burned our house was caused by petrol,” she said.
“Did you rebuild your house and if not, where are you staying for now? The Lawyer asked.
“No, we don’t rebuild it yet, we are currently staying with our neighbours,” she said
“Will you standby this if this court move to Koina to verify that?” the Lawyer asked.
“Yes, I will standby it,” the witness answered.
Counsel K. Jallow ended her cross-examination of the witness. Justice Sanneh asked the prosecution to bring their remaining witnesses on the next adjournment date. The case was adjourned to the 3rd and 4th of May 2021 for hearing.
