By Ba Tambadou
Former Attorney General
It is with sadness that I learned about the passing of Mam Yassin Sey, Lady Justice of the Supreme Court of The Gambia.
After the elections in December 2016 and the political impasse that followed, which exposed and underscored the critical role of The Gambia’s Supreme Court in the nation’s governance system, there was an urgent need to revamp the Supreme Court. The lack of a quorum in the Court and the search for foreign judges to preside over the elections petition case during the political impasse made headlines around the world and became a national embarrassment. We were therefore desperate and determined to show the world that our country, albeit small, had good and decent people capable of serving at all levels of our judicial system including the Supreme Court. We wanted Gambians of high repute, competence and standing to serve in the country’s highest court. We started to search for potential candidates in and outside the country. It was easy for me to identify Justice Mam Yassin Sey as a good judge for our revitalised exclusively Gambian Supreme Court. She had demonstrated on many occasions that she was an independent, competent, fearless, fair and courageous arbiter of the law. She exemplified Lord Denning’s characterisation of a “bold spirit who was ready to allow it if justice so required”. She wasn’t afraid to make difficult decisions no matter the circumstances and even at the risk of losing her job. As one senior lawyer told me, “she was a legal warrior”.
My admiration for justice Mam Yassin Sey was shaped by two encounters with her. The first one occurred back in April 2000 during the students’ demonstration. At the time I was a young lawyer full of passion for justice and human rights and a great deal of reckless energy. When my colleagues and I created the Coalition of Lawyers for Defence of Human Rights under the leadership of lawyer Ousman Sillah, and others like Mariam Denton, Amie Bensouda, Awa Sisay Sabally and Emmanuel D. Joof, we decided to challenge the illegal detention of hundreds of students across the country. We had no instructions from the students or their families. We decided to act pro bono based on our collective conscience and sentiments about the tragic events in the country at the time. A number of students were killed during the protests and a lot more were arrested and detained for weeks. When we filed the case at the high court seeking declarations about the illegal detention of the students and requested for their immediate release, we wondered which judge was going to be assigned the case and, more importantly, if he or she will be brave and courageous enough to make the declarations and to order for the release of the students. It was a very tense period in the country and the stakes couldn’t have been higher. The country was in shock over the killing of unarmed school children in broad daylight and the detention of many more. The government had reacted in such a callous manner because it believed that it was under threat and was therefore determined to crush the threat by any means. The events were unprecedented in The Gambia’s recent history. No one knew what was going to happen next. It was in this tense atmosphere that Justice Mam Yassin Sey was called upon to take a position as the high court judge who was assigned to preside over the case. Before this case, I had appeared before Justice Mam Yassin Sey only once in my very first case as a private lawyer at the high court in a civil matter. I therefore knew little about her and wondered if she was the one. The case was set for hearing and all the lawyers of the Coalition were present in court on that day. There were about ten of us. The courtroom was packed full of families of the students and the press. Our lead counsel lawyer Ousman Sillah made his submissions on our behalf and thereafter the State, which had unsuccessfully attempted to delay the proceedings by requesting an adjournment, strongly opposed our applications for a declaration and release of the students. On the same day soon after the respective submissions by lawyer Ousman Sillah and the State, and unusually for courts in The Gambia at the time, and in the best traditions of the legal profession, Justice Mam Yassin Sey came up to deliver her ruling. It seemed that she had either pre-determined the issues in view of the facts of common knowledge about the killings and mass arrest of students across the country or that it was such a straightforward matter for her that she didn’t need to think long about it since the issues involved the liberty of individuals. Either way, she delivered her ruling with profound dignity, judicial eloquence and the highest standards of competence and professionalism. Without fear, she granted our application and issued a declaration that the arrest and detention of the students violated their fundamental human rights under the 1997 constitution and ordered for their immediate release from custody. We were elated and relieved. Finally, here is a judge who was not afraid to do the right thing even at the risk of losing her job. By this single act of courage and fearlessness, Justice Mam Yassin Sey rekindled my faith in the law. For her though, the issue was simply about justice and legality and nothing else mattered. I wished it were that simple for many of the judges who served our country in those days. The students were subsequently released a few days after her ruling.
My second encounter with Justice Mam Yassin Sey occurred not long after the April 2000 students case, in the matter of the State against Ousman Dumo Saho who was arrested and detained for a prolonged period without trial. He was accused of involvement in a coup plot against the government together with others including Lt Lalo Jaiteh and Lt Dabo. The State’s star witness was a certain Francisco Caso who had come to the country as a businessman in the tourist industry and ended up as the military instructor for the “Junglers”. When Dumo was disappeared and his family and Swedish wife Annika Reinberg could not trace him because all the security services had denied that he was in their custody, I was instructed to act on his behalf. I was joined initially by Emmanuel D. Joof and then subsequently by lawyer Ousainou Darboe during the trial. Upon being instructed, I filed an application before the high court seeking a number of reliefs including that the arrest and continued detention without trial of Dumo Saho violated his fundamental human rights. The case was assigned to Justice Mam Yassin Sey. Based on our prior experience of appearing before her in the April 2000 students case, Mr Emmanuel Joof and I were hopeful that she will do the right thing yet again. True to form, she didn’t disappoint. She rose to the challenge and granted our application. She declared that the arrest and continued detention without trial of Ousman Dumo Saho violated his fundamental rights under the 1997 constitution. Her ruling paved the way for the start of the treason trial that followed and allowed us access to our client at the Mile 2 prisons.
These two cases illustrated her courage and fearlessness. For a better appreciation of the risks Justice Mam Yassin Sey took to serve the ends of justice, we must view her actions in their proper context at the time. Summary dismissal of judicial officers was commonplace sometimes for very flimsy reasons. The political atmosphere was constantly charged, and the government was becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent or alleged threats to their power. There was particular dislike of the courts which were seen as providing the platform for potential check against executive abuse and no effort was being spared to emasculate the judiciary especially in relation to cases that the government deemed “political”. It was in this hostile environment that Justice Mam Yassin Sey delivered her rulings in these two cases and in many others at the time. So even in the darkest days, there were decent Gambian men and women who were guided at all times by conscience and conviction. Justice Mam Yassin Sey was at the top of that list. Unfortunately for our country, her qualities were in demand elsewhere and she subsequently left our shores to serve others.
I remember when I called her in Vanuatu in early 2017 to request her to come back home to serve as a Supreme Court judge. She was excited about it. She didn’t hesitate and never asked about the conditions of service or anything else. She was just happy to have been asked to return home to help rebuild our country. Like many of us who also came back home from abroad following the change of government in December 2016, it was an honour and a privilege to serve our people. Despite the attractions of a better paid job and life abroad, she couldn’t turn it down. It was the mark of a true patriot. The Gambia has indeed lost a good daughter.
May her gentle soul rest in peace.
