By Ramatoulie Jawo
Lawyer Abdoulie Fatty, Counsel for Momodou Sabally, on Saturday, December 24, 2022, expressed his disappointment with the Attorney General’s Chambers for filling an application to extend the detention of his client.
“The Attorney General Chambers is the primary legal adviser of the government. If the primary legal adviser of the government is to apply this sort. This is the same application that was filed earlier this year when General Saul Badjie and others were arrested. Decision on the 4th of February this year, a High Court Judge tells them that ‘you can only detain somebody if you have not charged them. Sabally hasn’t been charged but you are seeking his continued detention until next month the 5th of January without being charged when there is an express constitutional provision saying ‘you cannot keep him beyond 72 hours,” Counsel Fatty expressed.
Counsel Fatty said that he believes Sabally’s detention is politically motivated because if you listened to the entire audio and not the edited 19 seconds, you come away with a better understanding, and the Police have the benefit of listening to the entire audio.
“Genuinely, if the police believe that Sabally had committed a crime worth him to be charged with treason or inciting violence, they would have done so. The Police normally do this very quickly and fairly. When Madi Jobarteh made a statement last year or so. He was charged almost instantly and the practice is they almost instantly charged you. In this instance, Sabally is there for a day and they did not charge him,” Counsel Fatty said.
Counsel Fatty added the Affidavit accompanying the application filed in court by the Attorney General, said he (Sabally) is suspected of committing a very grave crime.
Counsel Fatty said they (Attorney General Chambers) mention treason somewhere in the affidavit.
“I will not be surprised, actually I am thinking that they will charge him (Sabally) with treason. But I think that should be a wake-up call to Gambians. Yahya Jammeh used the justice system institutions to entrench himself. He used the law to sustain what he wanted to achieve. He used the Ministry of Justice, he used the judiciary, we have to be honest here. He used the Prison, he used the Police, and he used the entire security apparatus to achieve some of his political objectives. So you used the law to legalise and legitimize otherwise unlawful political objectives.
“We have to be careful here, If I were a Betting man I will 95% bet that they (Attorney General Chambers) will charge him (Sabally) with treason. Because the reason why they will charge him with treason, even though that will be utterly ridiculous to listen to that statement and say that amounts to treason. But because treason would not be bailable. So it may be a deliberate strategy that ‘let’s charge him with treason, take him to court because he is not going to be bailed. So we dump him in mile 2 for 2 or 3 months just like in the Sainabou Mbye case and withdraw the case,” he said
Counsel Fatty however said If that happen, Justice sector institutions would have used the law to victimize Sabally unfairly.
Counsel Fatty argued that Sabally is not above the law, I am not above the law, President Barrow is not above the law, Lawyer Darboe is not above the law, Essa Faal is not above the law, Mama Kandeh is not above the law.
Counsel Fatty said any individual in the country who committed an offence the Police have the right to investigate and prosecute if there is evidence that can be sustained in Court.
“What we should not allow is that in the absence of evidence that is attainable in Court for Political reasons we use the law to do wrong things. Because this is what Yahya Jammeh did for so long. He particularly used the National Assembly to pass laws. Some of the laws that the Supreme Court last week stroke down as unconstitutional. The Judiciary actually testified at the TRRC and they produce a petition paper and they accepted how Yahya Jammeh used the Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice to achieve his political will. We have to be very careful here.
“For Sabally to be charged with treason and I think that’s what they will probably do. Knowing fully well that he is not going to be able to get bail. That will undermine people’s faith in the Justice system. It will also create a bad precedent and legacies of Yahya Jammeh. We have to respect fundamental rights and freedoms. We have to respect the rule of law, People exercising public functions should always use good judgement and do the right thing,” Counsel Fatty stated.
Counsel Abdoulie Fatty made these remarks on Saturday while appearing on one of our weekly shows called “The Brunch” as a guest.