The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Fatou Sowe and Gibbi Sallah
2 June 2011
Lamin Gassama, the tenth prosecution witness in the ongoing criminal trial involving the state against Rudy Rasoel Hamid Ghazi and eight others, on Tuesday ended his testimony before the acting Principal Magistrate Taiwo Ade Alagbe of the Banjul Magistrates Court.
During cross-examination by the defence counsel for the first to seventh and ninth accused persons, Lawyer Lamin S. Camara, PW10 told the court that he obtained Exhibit W1 (the statement of the second accused, Juan Carlos Sanchez). He further told the court that the second accused was speaking English and the second accused thumb-printed Exhibit W1 for authentic reasons because people have different signatures.
According to PW10, he obtained Exhibit W1 on the 20th of July 2010 at the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) office in Kanifing. PW10 denied the defence counsel’s claims that Exhibit W1 was obtained under duress, saying that nobody had ever pointed a finger to the second accused neither did anybody tortured him “because they are professionals who know how to investigate without torture”.
He disclosed that the first and second accused persons were brought to Bonto Village to be shown what was discovered in their (the accused persons) warehouse. He added that he was present when the fifth accused, George Sanchez, was interviewed and fifth accused person’s claim was that he was sent by someone to come to The Gambia and collect cocaine from the first accused, but he (PW10) could not remember the day when the fifth accused came to The Gambia.
He informed the court that when they discovered the cocaine in the bunker of the warehouse, they opened few bags to confirm the contents but they did not count the content of the 85 bags discovered.
He finally said that he cannot remember seeing a document of the land where the warehouse is built but that the first and second accused persons negotiated for the said land at Bonto Village.
The case was adjourned to Thursday, 2nd June 2011 for hearing.
AllAfrica – All the Time
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In Cocaine Nine Case Pw10 Ends Testimony