Gambia: Senior National Intelligent Agent (NIA) Officer, others charged
By Own Correspondent – A senior operative of the National Intelligent Agency and two others were last Friday arraigned at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Emmanuel Nkea charged with conspiracy and unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous harm.
The accused persons, Lamin Darboe, a senior NIA operative, Alagie Edrissa Jobe, former head of the Special Operation Unit at the NIA, and Ebrima Drammeh, National Drug Enforcement Agency Commissioner for Kanifing Division, all denied the charges.
The charge sheet on count one stated that the three accused persons sometime in May 2009 at the NIA head office in Banjul conspired among themselves to cause injury to the persons of Lamin Kabou and Lamin Sima.
Count two revealed that the accused persons sometime in May 2009, at the NIA head office in Banjul, with intent to cause grievous harm to Lamin Kabou and Lamin Sima, unlawfully wounded Lamin Kabou and Lamin Sima, by beating them with fist blows, electric cables and metals.
D.O. Kulo, the Director of Special Litigation at the Attorney General Chambers, told the court that the state was applying for an adjournment, as the case was for only mentioning. He said the state was not objecting to bail for the accused persons, as it is a constitutional right, which the accused persons are entitled to.
Kulo also added that granting bail was at the discretion of the court. Defence counsel Borry Touray did not oppose the application for an adjournment. However, he applied for bail on behalf of the accused persons, stating that the alleged offence committed was a bail able one.
He said the accused persons are all responsible persons and married with kids, and they are presumed innocent until the contrary is proven.
Defence counsel L Farage, who represented the third accused person, also associated herself with the submission of lawyer Borry Touray. The accused persons were each granted bail in the sum of D1 million with two Gambian sureties, each of whom must be in possession of a landed property within the Greater Banjul Area.
The bail condition further stipulated that the accused persons should deposit their travel documents with the registrar of the court. The case was adjourned till 15th November 2010.
