By Politico staff Writer
44-year-old Motor Mechanic Mustapha Kabba has been sentenced to 57 years imprisonment for the offence of Robbery with aggravation against Octogenarian, Dr. Kitty Fadlu-Deen.
The judgment on Thursday 3rd March 2022 by Court of Appeal Judge, Justice Komba Kamanda came after an eleven-member jury unanimously returned a guilty verdict in respect of a four-count indictment including robbery with aggravation, attempting to strangle, and causing grievous bodily harm.
For count 1, the convict was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, 20 years for count 2, 10 years for count 3, and 4 years for count 4.
According to the particulars of Offence, on the 1st September 2020, in the Western Area of Freetown, Kabba being armed with a Black Power line Semi-Automatic Gun robbed Dr. Fadlu-Deen , carting off one dark grey 2018 Toyota Rav-4 Jeep valued at $24,500,000 equivalent to Le245, 000,000,000 and one Samsung J-20 mobile phone valued $150 equivalent to Le1, 500,000. In the process Kabba caused her grievous bodily harm and attempted to strangle her.
However, the convict denied the allegations upon his arraignment before the court. In his opening address to the jurors, prosecuting Lawyer Yada Williams said that the accused was before the court on a four-count indictment which he must prove.
He assured that there was enough evidence to prove that on the 1st of September 2020 at about 8:15 am, the accused went to the premises of Dr. Fadlu-Deen at Lumley and upon arrival at the house, encountered unarmed security guards but pretended to be on the phone with the elderly woman to trick the guards and gain access to the premises.
“He went upstairs, tricked his way in, and there started the agony, pain, and sufferings of this over 80-year-old woman. She was physically manhandled by the accused person and the evidence will reveal all of this,” the prosecutor said.
“She was dragged into one of the toilets inside the house and there she was gagged with a lot of toilet tissues and towels stuffed into her mouth so that she could not raise an alarm for the guards outside or neighbors,’’he continued.
Lawyer Williams said for the incident itself to have taken place in broad daylight showed the “effrontery and audacity” of the accused, adding that the accused tied up the old woman and demanded the keys to the vehicle with registration number AQG 834 and was directed to where the keys were kept, out of fear.
He said the accused locked the woman in the toilet, took her phone, and disappeared with the vehicle which had landed in Sierra Leone almost brand new costing $24,500,000. The prosecutor said Kabba did that with the deception that he was in some kind of relationship with the woman, which led the guards to open the gates for the accused to drive away. The woman according to the lawyer later on screamed, attracting the attention of servants and neighbours who then went and rescued her.
The prosecuting lawyer said a report of the incident was made at the Lumley Police Station and Interpol alerted, as well as security personnel at the Sierra Leone-Guinea border.
He added that later on the same day, the accused showed up at the Sierra Leone Guinea border with the vehicle with a diplomatic license plate recorded as 19 CD 12 and was intercepted by the Guinean authorities, still with the gun he had used to terrify the woman.
He stressed that the accused made a number of confessional statements to the police as well as admitted to having sold Dr. Fadlu Deen’s phone on his way to Guinea.
The prosecution led in evidence a number of witnesses in support of its case. At the close of the prosecution’s case, the accused claimed that he was tortured at the CID which resulted in him making a confessional statement.
After his claim of torture in the hands of the police, Justice Kamanda conducted a voir dire (trial within a trial) in other to ascertain whether his claims were true but they turned out to be false. In mitigation plea, defence lawyer Harold Momoh implored the judge to temper justice with mercy.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Kamanda said that his judgment was informed by the entirety of the evidence, the audacity with which the convict committed the offence, describing it as “violent and diplomatic.”
He added that the way in which the convict did the act showed that he is a “professional criminal.”
Copyright © Politico Online 07/03/22)
