The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a request by Bubacarr Keita’s lawyers for the businessman to be granted bail amid his appeal at the top court.
Keita, 29, invoked the apex court after the Court of Appeal revoked his High Court bail in March.
The Supreme Court is yet to decide his appeal against the appellate court’s decision yet his lawyers asked the court to grant him bail pending the determination of the appeal.
But in his ruling, top Justice Rahmond Sock insisted the rule Keita’s lawyers relied on applied only to someone who is already convicted of a crime, who has decided to appeal his conviction.
“Clearly, therefore, rule 42 of the Rules of this Court, pursuant to which this application is brought, envisages a situation where one has been convicted of a criminal offence, has appealed to this court against his or her conviction and applied for bail pending the determination of his or her appeal before the court,” Sock argued in one instance.
And in his concluding remarks in a 9-page ruling, Sock said: “I believe the law provides for three types of bail, namely police bail during the investigation of an offence, court bail during the trial (pending the hearing and determination of the offence); and court bail pending the hearing and determination of an appeal against conviction.
“However, these three types of bail are only available in respect of offences not punishable with death or imprisonment for life, as provided by section 99 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Consequently, in the absence of a conviction and appeal therefrom, the Court of Appeal cannot ordinarily grant bail even with respect to bailable offences.
“In the instant suit, section 99 prohibits a court from admitting into bail a person accused of rape or other offences punishable with death or imprisonment for life. The lower court was therefore right to revoke the bail granted by the trial judge contrary to the provisions section 99 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The application before this court is therefore dismissed for incompetence.”
Keita is standing trial for allegedly raping his former wife’s 15-year-old sister, charges he has since denied.
