Court Refuses Defence Address in Ensa Badjie Case

FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

Abubacarr Saidykhan

15 July 2011

At the high court of the Gambia, within the premises of the Special Criminal Division, the trial Judge Justice Joseph Enwa Ikpala on Thursday 14th of July 2011 refused to wait for the defense counsel to file his written address on behalf of both the 1st and the 2nd accused persons Badjie and Ceesay on the reason that the counsel Borry S. Touray failed to respect the agreed set dates to file his addresses.

The trial Judge proceeded to announce and set a day for Judgment for the two accused persons which falls on the 29th of July 2011.

Lawyer Borry S. Touray was asked by the trial judge if he had filed his written address on behalf of his two clients? In response to the question, Barrister Touray said he has not yet filed his written address because of little problems with his laptop. He said he was unable to prepare the address owing to this problem and finally asked for an adjournment to enable him to do so.

S.H Barkum for the state was asked if he had objection to that concern, the state prosecutor seriously objected to the application for adjournment arguing that they had earlier agreed on a set date for all of them to file their addresses within that period and that no extension of dates was agreed on the previous proceeding.

The trial Judge in his ruling noted that since both parties had agreed on no extension of dates in the filing of their addresses, he is left with no option but to reject the application of the defence and will continue to set a date for judgment in the proceeding. He said the prosecutor has urged him to go ahead with the judgment and “That’s what I am exactly going to do,” the judge remarked. The trial judge finally proceeded to set the 29th of July 2011 for Judgment for the former Police Boss Ensa Badjie and the former CSP Ali Ceesay.

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