One Ebou Sanneh was yesterday convicted and sentenced to a mandatory jail term of 4 years imprisonment for hypnotising a police officer, Siga Faal, and stole some items from her.
Magistrate Thomas Touray of the Kanifing Magistrates' Court passed the sentence. He told the court that the offence with which the convict was charged attracts 7 years imprisonment. He ordered him to pay a compensation of D18,700 to the complainant in default to serve one year imprisonment. He stated that if the convict fails to pay the compensation, both sentences would run concurrently. This followed the guilty plea of the convict.
Prosecutors alleged that the convict on or about the 4th October, 2024, at Kanifing South, in the Kanifing Municipality of the Republic of The Gambia, stole from Siga Faal the following items: one mobile phone mark iphone XR valued at D16,000, cash of D700, a hand bag valued at D400, jewelries valued at D1,600 and clothes whose value was unknown.
In reading the facts, Prosecutor Jarra revealed that on Friday, the 4th of October, 2024, the complainant went to the PIU camp gate. While waiting for a vehicle to Banjul, the convict approached and greeted her by shaking her hand. "He asked her about a marabout by the name Habatu Sauda. She responded that she did not know him. The convict asked her to follow him and she complied. They went up to Jimpex to the Bus Station. He asked her to sit down. She complied. He then asked her to pick a pinch of sand from the ground and put it in his hand. He asked her to pray and then hypnotised her. She handed her bag to him which contained D700. He also asked her to give him her mobile phone and a bag containing her clothes. She complied. He cut some grass and gave it to her and asked her to go to a mosque with the grass. He then asked her not to turn back if she reached the mosque. He told her that she would see a finger ring. She felt something unusual and when she looked back, the convict was nowhere to be found. One day, she came across the convict at Westfield, and was later arrested," he narrated to the court.
