By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The Judge Advocate presiding over the trial of thirteen soldiers of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces for alleged mutiny has warned that the court would not grant another adjournment after Monday, February 23, 2015.
Otto During was speaking after the prosecution team made another adjournment application on the grounds that the lead state prosecutor Gerard Soyei was ill.
“This is the last adjournment application I am granting. If the lead prosecutor does not show up on Monday, 23rd February, we will go for an alternative measure,” the judge declared, noting that the trial had been moving at a faster pace before the prosecutor`s illness interrupted it.
The Monday adjournment application was the fourth consecutive one following the announcement by the assisting state prosecutor Major Vincent Sowa on 2nd February that Soyei had fallen ill and could not appear for that day’s proceedings.
In all three previous applications, the defense team had raised no objections, despite its lead counsel Julius Nye Cuffie observing that the prosecution had “not presented a medical report” as evidence for their claim of the lead prosecutor`s ill health.
On Friday, after the third adjournment, Cuffie said that he had made no objections because he wanted to give Soyei’s condition “a human face,” but he added that he would on the next adjourned date [Monday, February 16] be “applying for the matter to be discharged for want of further prosecution.” He complained that his team had started the trial at “a rapid pace, but the prosecution is slowing us down.”
However, just as the lead prosecuting counsel was absent on Monday, so was the lead defense.
Soyei fell ill on Monday 2nd February, 2015 shortly before that day’s proceedings commenced. A close Politico source indicated that the lead prosecutor had been shot with “witch gun.” Some attendees of the court martial have also expressed same.
A court martial orderly James Metzger had told Politico that he spoke with Mr Soyei shortly after he fell ill and that his illness was no cause for alarm. He said Soyei spoke in a clear voice that did not portray him “very ill.”
© Politico 17/02/15
