By: Ousman Saidykhan
Sainabou and co continue to be remanded at the Mile 2 prisons as Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the Banjul High Court announced he would hand back to the Chief Justice the application filed by the defense seeking bail for their clients (Sainabou and others).
“In view of the fact that I will be out of the jurisdiction next week, I hereby return this miscellaneous application for bail to the Honourable Chief Justice for reassignment to a vacation judge,” Justice Jaiteh said.
It could be recalled that the defense counsels were asked to file formally after the court rejected their oral application for the accused persons be to granted bail in their first appearance before the High Court on Wednesday, 3rd August 2022.
It is that application they filed formally and served the prosecution as suggested to them by Justice Jaiteh but the prosecution told the court they could not file their opposition to it. They have up to eight days to file their affidavit against the application.
“We are yet to file our affidavit which we intend to do either before the end of business today or Monday first thing in the morning. I, therefore, crave the indulgence of this court to give us time to file today or Monday,” M B Sowe told the Court.
The defense counsel reminded the court that it was agreed the time is to be abridged citing the “urgency” of the matter.
“So, if we could have a quick date. If my Lord could transfer this case to the vacation judge so we could have a date early next week, so we can proceed with the application,” defense counsel Sagarr Jahateh asked.
The prosecution replied that “that is okay with us” and suggested they can even serve the defense the hard copy of their affidavit “counsel to counsel.”
The Judge agreed and ordered both the prosecution and defense to serve their affidavit and processes respectively to each other; counsel to counsel.
“The respective counsels are urged to file their processes before the next adjourned date and ensure that the processed files are made available to the court,” Justice Jaiteh said.
