By Momodou Justice Darboe
After spending more than three months in pre-trial detention over charges of murder, AFPRC junta stalwart Yankuba Touray Monday returned to the High Court in Banjul as hearing into his case opens.
Touray, who alongside former Gambian tyrant Yaya Jammeh conspired to forcefully remove long-time leader Dawda Jawara in a bloodless military intervention, is standing trial for the murder of a former finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay 24 years ago.
The charred remains of the erstwhile minister has been discovered in a burnt official vehicle in suspicious circumstances on the usually desolate road in Jambur in Kombo South in 1995 and since then the circumstances surrounding his macabre death has remained a mystery.
But now, the state has charged Yankuba Touray for jointly killing the former finance minister by hitting him with a pestle-like object thereby causing his death.
Mid-July, when he was formally charged with murder Touray refused to take a plea insisting that he was relying on a Constitutional immunity clause that purportedly provided him the blanket from prosecution of acts of commission and omission as may be committed by the junta. And his team of lawyers also vehemently argued on this line and asked the court to grant Touray bail and refer his case to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
But Abubacarr Baa Tambadou who also led a team of lawyers representing the state, argued passionately that the constitutional immunity on which Touray claimed he was relying was both broad and vague. He said the mere claim to constitutional immunity should not be sufficient to convince the court as it was open to conjecture. Tambadou also prayed the court not to give liberty to Touray as his case proceeds because, according to him, murder is a capital offense and therefore unbailable.
And Presiding, Justice Ebrima Jaiteh concurred, adding that there was no constitutional provision for granting of bail to alleged perpetrators of capital offenses. He also issued an order for Touray to be remanded in state custody as his case continues.
On Monday, Touray returned to the high court in Banjul from the State Central Prisons where he is being held since July.
State prosecutors led by senior state counsel, AM Yusuf, presented their first witness who testified about his contact with Touray as part of investigations revolving around the death of Ousman Koro Ceesay and Touray’s alleged involvement in it. The witness, who said he was at the time working at the Investigations Department of the police, told the high court that Yankuba Touray was all through the investigations insisting on his purported immunity and had refused to give or sign any cautionary statement.
Meanwhile, Yankuba Touray came into conflict with the laws of the land when he in July of this year refused to testify before the TRRC.
His case resumes October 22 and was in the meantime returned to the State Central Prisons.
