By Pateh Kinteh, Kanifing Court, The Gambia

In the on-going bogus seditious and false publication trial of Reuters’ West and Central Africa dean, Pap Saine, The Gambia’s errant Director of Public Prosecution- Mr. Richard Chenge on Monday 23 March 2009 told the Kanifing Magistrate Court that the state is filing another charge sheet dated 19 March 2009 to substitute the previous charges against Mr. Pap Saine, publisher and Managing Editor of the Point Newspaper.

 Mr. Saine’s defence attorney, Mrs. Hawa Ceesay-Sabally in response told the court that she was not served with the new charges. She was immediately provided the new charge sheet in court. Ceesay then applied for a recess to allow her study the new charges and stated that they would not object to the substitution of the charge if the bail conditions remained the same. 

The charges could not however be read in court as the presiding Magistrate noticed that they were defective lacking among other things, a case number resulting in the Prosecution’s application for an adjournment to fix the fatal flaws. Defense counsel Ceesay- Sabally said she came to court with the intention to proceed but if the prosecution wishes to apply for an adjournment she will not object. The case was adjourned to 30 March 2009 for the Prosecution to regularize the charge sheet.

 It can be recalled that Mr. Saine was arrested on February 2, 2009 and detained at the Banjul Police headquarters overnight before being dragged to a kangaroo court charged with 'false publication' after his paper reported that Lamin Sabi Sanyang- financial attaché at the Gambian Embassy in Washington, DC who was lured back, arrested and detained at the NIA headquarters was finally moved to the Mile Two Central Prisons.

When the case was called Wednesday 25 February, defense attorney Ceesay-Sabally had argued that the charges have no basis in law since the Section in which the charges were expunged following the 2004 Criminal Code Act Amendment. The Presiding Magistrate Sainabou Wadda-Ceesay who had since resigned from the bench ordered the prosecution to amend their charges.

 Returning to court on March 11, the prosecution appeared with the same charges arguing that they have consulted their experts all of whom maintained that the original charges were fine and no amendments were required. Magistrate Wadda- Ceesay again adjourned the case to March 23, admonishing the prosecution “to put their house in order.”  

 Meanwhile Mr. Saine is also expected to appear at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court on separate charges of ‘obtaining a Gambian ID card and Passport by false pretence and declaration’. At the last adjournment on Wednesday 11 March 2009 before magistrate Lamin George the prosecution was ordered to serve the defense with sufficient information on the charges for the accused to prepare his defense. That case resumes on Wednesday March 25, 2009.

Veteran journalist, Pap Saine is one of the latest victims of Jammeh’s autocrat regime. Unidentified gunmen murdered his co-founder at the Point newspaper- Deyda Hydara on the eve of his paper’s 13 years anniversary on December 15, 2004.

His killing came in the wake of his tireless efforts to stop the government from introducing the draconian Media Commission Bill, which was masterminded, by the government to further gag the independent press. Government’s intention was to hijack the role of the media by formulating its own regulations and impose it on the press, which the late Hydara vehemently fought leading him to pay the ultimate price.