Bernd George Diedrich has shared proof of his ownership of the dispute-stricken land in Tranquil dating back to 1991.
Diedrich is locked in a bitter dispute with at least 20 home owners in Tranquil over a parcel of land in the small town.
Diedrich had battled it out in the high court in Brikama with 15 respondents and won, with high court judge Emmanuel Amadi declaring Diedrich as the rightful owner of the land. This was contained in a 2012 judgment seen by The Fatu Network. The Court of Appeal last year upheld the decision of the high court, court records seen by The Fatu Network show.
Impeccable documents show Diedrich became owner of the land in March 1991 from Ebrima Faal and Saihou Faal of Bijilo.
The families however in a news conference on Sunday insisted they own the land – but most of them told The Fatu Network their ownership of the land isn’t more than 10 years long.
But in a rebuttal, Diedrich blasted the families as encroachers who had relied on the ‘corrupt’ regime of Yahya Jammeh and “now they are crying again for the government to sanction their illegal acquisition of my land from criminal real estate agents”.
Below is his full rebuttal;
I am Bernd Georg Diedrich, who is falsely accused and charged in your video of trying to take away a Gambian millionäre family‘s illegally built villa without any legal basis.
I was very surprised at the one-sidedness of your video. Your reporter did not ask a single critical question to realise, that this family, like all the others affected, is stylising itself one-sidely as a victim in order to divert attention from the fact that they are perpetrators!
Ms. Camara scolded in your video:“ Our lawyer is already on his way to Banjul!“
At the latest one could have asked then to find out that Mr. Camara and the 19 other encroachers on my land have sued against a ruling of the Brikama High Court from 2012 in my favour, namely that I am the rightful owner.
The High Court in Banjul was supposed to overturn the Brikama High Court ruling from 2012 in order to prevent an eviction in 2017. This means they forced me into another High Court Case, which the 20 applicants (Mr. Camara is No. 5) then lost. Judgment by Hon. Justice S. Wadda Cisse on 30.7.2018.
As an aside: Their case was filed by lawyer Foster in Banjul intentionally under the same number as the Brikama High Court case (HC/313/09/BK/035/A0) from 2012, which is not legal and should actually have led to the classification of a non case for deception. Mr. Foster did this to suggest that the 20 encroachers have a legal relationship with me to be able to sue me. However no one of them was part of the Brikama judgment of 2012 and I did not sell them the land at all. They have bought the land from Real Estate Agents like Bacarama Sumbundu, Sheik Tijan Sangnia, Abdoulie Ndimbalan et. al. who had previously bought it illegally from the Alkalo of Bijilo, who had betrayed me during my absence in 2005 by selling my whole land of 22.000 sqm, knowing exactly that I have a valid lease for the land. because he had also signed all the documents for it himself!
After his application had been dismissed at the High Court in Banjul on 30.7.2018, Foster then also appealed against the Judgment of Hon.Justice S. Wadda Cisse to the
Court of Appeal. This Appeal was also dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 18.12.19 by the Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal Hon. Justice A. Bah. (GCA 080/2018).
In her interview, one lady pretended to be unaware of the real facts and she commented on the impudence of trying to evacuate her saying: “Let them go to court then!“
I don‘t know which court she is talking about here! This case has gone through all the courts, starting from 2005, which have confirmed me as the rightful owner.
I have always been open to negotiating compensation, but none of these 20 applicants ever approached me during the 8 years of dispute. By the way. I lived in the immediate vicinity for almost 2 years.
Even before the Brikama judgment, when the whole land was under an injunction imposed by the High Court since 2005 and as well as after the judgment in 2012, the encroachers simply continued to built on the houses and so unscrupulous bent the law without consequences. They relied on the help of ex-Justice Minister Jobarteh, whose aim was to arrest me and Mr. Barry. He then did so pesonally and charged us with ecomomic crime.
While he was arresting us on the 2nd February 2013 he said to me: „I will show you that you have no land here!“
We ended up in police custody for 8 days and later were remanded in Mile 2 for 8 days with 20 people in a 20sqm prison cell. The case had been discontinued by the state and we were discharged on the 12th August 2013.
I continued to try to fight the discrimination and injustice but was finally expelled from the country on the 16th January 2015.
The encroachers had relied on the corrupt regime under Yammeh and now they are crying again for the Government to sanction their illegal acquisition of my land from criminal Real Estate Agents. Why didn‘t they actually sue their fellow Gambians who cheated them and quickly resold them the illegally acquired land to cover their own tracks? It is oviously easier to arbitrarily charge a foreigner without any legal basis! None of them is an innocent buyer!
I quote from a letter from the Ministy of Lands and Regional Government (P↓ M. Sanyang) to the director of Physical Planning, dated 7.1.2014: „Any other lease or permit issued within this premises after 1996 date is declared null and void, since it would be issued over a legal lease which was neither revoked nor cancelled at the time“. (He is refering to the date of my lease document DI 35/L.5041, Serial Registration No.: P51/1996.
Then Mr. Sanyang writes further: „ Here is a typical case, where people (like Mr. Camara et. al.) flagrantly choose to develop structures at their own peril!“
As for confirmation of the legal facts I can mail the judgments in question!
I would be very pleased and relieved if you would turn the one-sided portrayal of the Camara family upside down and hold up a mirror to this wealthy upper-class family with roots in USA and Europe with regard to the discrimination and prejudices they spread.
