By Kemeseng Sanneh (Kexx)
Senior Lawyer Lamin Mboge has made an application before the high court seeking to obtain the release of his client, Amie Bojang, who is accused of helping her brother to abscond after allegedly killing two (2) policemen and injuring one policewoman.
Amie was charged with ‘Accessory after the fact to murder’ contrary to Section 202 of the Criminal Code. The prosecution alleged that Amie Bojang on or about 13 September 2023, at Brufut, Kombo South District, West Coast Region, knew that Ousainou Bojang had committed murder and assisted him to run out of The Gambia in order to enable him to escape punishment.
In a bid to prove its case, the prosecution called 12 witnesses. Lawyer Mboge said out of those witnesses, only one witness testified about Amie. The witness he mentioned was Abdoulie Drammeh (PW9), a taxi driver who took Amie with her brother, Ousainou Bojang to The Gambia border. The witness narrated how he was hired to go to Brufut and then to Darsilami. He stated that though they were speaking in Jola, he heard Amie Bojang saying ‘let’s go to the garage’ but Ousainou declined, saying a police officer told him to avoid public places. Then he took them to Darsilam, and from there, they came back to Brikama.
“This is the only evidence against the 2nd accused,” Lawyer Mboge stated.
Mboge said under cross-examination, the witness agreed that the Accused Persons were talking about “toubab”, and when he asked the 2nd Accused Person about the shooting incident, she did not answer.
He said section 202 provides that ‘A person becomes an accessory after the fact of murder commits a felony, and is liable on conviction for life”‘.
Mboge submitted that there is no credible evidence before the court to warrant Amie to open her defence. He stated that the evidence before the court is not sufficient to convict her.
“Therefore, the charge against her is an abuse of process and should be struck out,” Mboge said.
He cited Section 238 of the Criminal Procedure Code to support his case.
He stated that for a ‘no case submission’ to succeed, the prosecution must have failed to prove both elements or ingredients of the offence, that is, the Mens Rea and Actus Reus; the evidence of the prosecution must have been thoroughly discredited under cross-examination that no reasonable Tribunal will convict on it; and the prosecution witnesses’ evidence must be so unreliable that it would be unsafe for any reasonable Tribunal to convict based on the evidence.
He said all that is required of the Court at this stage is to ascertain whether there is any evidence at all, no matter how slight, linking the accused with the offence. He added that a submission of No Case is firmly rooted in the presumption of innocence enshrined under Section 24(3)(a) of the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia.
“My Lord, it is my submission that the prosecution has failed woefully to prove the mens rea of the offence and also has not produced sufficient evidence to link the accused with the offence charged. No witness among all the prosecution witnesses has ever stated that the 2nd Accused knew that the 1st Accused had killed the Police Officers at Sukuta Jabang Traffic Lights and was helping her brother, the 1st Accused, to escape from punishment. The evidence produced by the prosecution is far away from disclosing that the 2nd Accused committed a crime and should not have been charged for the alleged offence much more to be denied of her liberty for almost a year now,” he said.
He submitted that the Court cannot speculate what was not said by the witnesses and in the absence of any evidence to support the charge, Amie Bojang should be discharged and acquitted on the basis that there is insufficient evidence to convict her.
“My Lord, calling on the 2nd Accused [Amie] to enter her defence is equivalent to proving her innocence as she is protected by the Constitution and even the Provision of the Criminal Procedure Code,” he said.
He said the only evidence adduced so far in the case is barely enough to sustain the charge and cannot secure conviction.
