By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Former Master and Registrar of the High Court, Stephen Yayah Mansaray together with 3 other staff of the judiciary and a local law firm have on the 27th July 2021 appeared in court before Justice Simeon Allieu to answer allegations of corruption by the Anti-Corruption Corruption (ACC).
Mansaray together with Richie Edwin Asgill, Principal Accountant ,Adele Fayia, former Accountant Clerk –all former staff of the Judiciary together with Clarence Solomon Will, a Legal Assistant at Bah and Co law firm in Freetown were arraigned in Court on allegations of misappropriation of the total sum of four hundred and sixty million, two hundred and sixty-eight thousand, and two hundred Leones (460,268,200.00).
According to the indictment by the ACC, the former Master and Registrar together with the former Principal Accountant between 2014 and 2018 conspired with others to sign “a number of cheques through which they authorised the withdrawal of funds from a domiciled account at the Bank of Sierra Leone for their personal benefit or for other unjustified purposes,” the indictment reads. It said that the former Accountant Clerk also instructed the encashment of several cheques of which she misappropriated the said monies.
Will, the former Legal Assistant at Bah and Co Law firm was said to have misappropriated monies from an encashment of cheques from the Judiciary’s account between 25th April 2018 and 14th March 2019.
All accused persons are on trial since September 2019 on various counts of misappropriation of public funds contrary to section 36(1) and conspiracy to commit a corruption offence contrary to section 128(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008; a total of 18 counts indictment.
In the previous trials, the prosecution had led in 9 witnesses to testify against all accused persons.
All accused persons filed a no case submission except the 1st accused, Mansaray who said that he relied on the entirety of his evidence during the investigation.
Counsel representing the 2nd accused person, Lawyer Nylander said that his client will testify under oath and that they will lead in not less than 2 other witnesses to testify in their defence.
Similarly, counsel for the 3rd accused, Winstina Kamara said that her client will also testify under oath and that they also plan to lead in not less than a witness to form part of their defence.
Counsel for the 4th accused person was not in court due to unavoidable reasons. In light of that, Justice Allieu beckoned the accused to chat with his counsel for expediency of the matter.
Justice Allieu adjourned the matter to the 10th August 2021.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (29/07/21)
