The Accused Arona Tine In Court
By Landing Ceesay
The West Field murder case of Fatoumatta Kargbo, who was allegedly stabbed to death by Arona Tine, a Senegalese national, has been assigned to Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the High Court of the Gambia by the Chief Justice of the Republic, Hassan B. Jallow.
Arona Tine was charged with murder by the Gambia Police Force (GPF) under Section 187 of the Criminal Code, which is punishable under Section 188 of the same code. The police claimed that Arona Tine killed Fatoumatta Kargbo, an employee of HM Bureau Exchange in Westfield, Kanifing Municipality, with a knife on January 19, 2024.
On Monday, Arona Tine was brought before Principal Magistrate Sallah Mbye of the Kanifing Magistrate Courts, who transferred the case to the High Court of the Gambia due to lack of jurisdiction. Arona Tine was remanded at the Mile 2 Central Prison until the hearing of the case at the High Court.
Information obtained by Kerr Fatou indicates that the case will be mentioned for the first time at the High Court on February 13, 2024, before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh, who has presided over some of the country’s most high-profile cases.
One such case was the State Vs Yankuba Touray, a former member of the military junta and former Minister of Local Government, who was sentenced to death by Justice Jaiteh for the brutal murder of Ousman Koro Ceesay, the former Finance Minister of the Junta Regime.
Another high-profile case handled by Justice Jaiteh was the manslaughter case involving Sainabou Mbye, Cherno Mbye, and Kibilly Dembelly, who were charged with two counts of manslaughter and exposing children under the Criminal Code of the Gambia. However, the case was dropped by the Attorney General’s Office on the day the defendants were supposed to present their defence.
Justice Jaiteh is also currently overseeing several other high-profile cases involving murder, corruption, robbery, and so on.
One of them is the Sukuta Jabang Traffic Lights murder trial of Ousainou Bojang and Amie Bojang, who are accused of shooting and killing two Police Intervention Unit (PIU) officers and injuring another on September 12, 2023.
Another one is the multi-million dalasis corruption trial of three officials of the Ministry of Health of the Gambia, including its Permanent Secretary, Muhammadou Lamin Jaiteh. They are facing 19 charges of official corruption, failure to fulfill statutory duties, conspiracy to commit a felony, and economic crimes under the Criminal Code and the Economic Crimes Act.