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Gambia: Court Conceals Prosecution?s Witness Identity In Journalist?s Sedition Trial
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Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra)
PRESS RELEASE
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 23 April 2008
The Kanifing Magistrate Court trying Fatou Jaw Manneh, a US-based Gambian journalist for alleged sedition on April 21, 2008 restricted the general public from the trial by ruling that only Manneh’s family members and two journalists were to be admitted to the court.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that the ruling followed an earlier application filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of The Gambia, Emmanuel Fagbenle. The DPP had earlier asked the court to protect the prosecution witnesses by concealing their identities.
The sources said Lamin Jobarteh, Manneh’s counsel, objected to the court’s decision, arguing that courts all over the world were open platform for the general public. This was, however, overruled.
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Following the new ruling, a third witness also testified against the journalist.
Manneh, a former journalist with the Daily Observer newspaper in its early days, has been charged with three counts of sedition, following a series of articles she wrote criticising the regime of President Yahya Jammeh. Upon her arrival on March 28, 2007 in the Gambia, she was arrested, detained for a week, and had her travel documents confiscated by the authorities.
Since her arrest, Manneh’s case has been moving back and forth from one magistrate’s court to another. The courts have argued that they lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter, because the said articles were published on the internet. However, on December 7, 2007, a High Court in Banjul ruled that the case could be tried anywhere because of the global nature of the Internet and referred it back to the court where it was first tried – the Kanifing Magistrate Court. On March 11, 2008, the case was delayed further as Magistrate Jawo failed to show up in court.
the ongoing trial of fatou jaw manneh by gambian authority is a great test of democracy in the gambia n it also demonstrate how weak our judicial system is at this moment.a quick n transparent trial is needed,as already her right as an innocent person is been infringe.this is also manifested by d saying ie JUSTICE DELAY IS JUSTICE DENIYAL.
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