By Francis H. Murray
The state prosecutor in the preliminary investigations into the alleged murder of one Ibrahim Kamara before Magistrate Hannah Bonnie in Freetown says the case for the state will close on Monday 15th June, 2020, after the testimony of two factual witnesses.
In his testimony earlier, prosecution witness Sorie Kargbo, a resident of Bumbuna Town, recalled that on the 7th March 2020, he was attending a function at the Waterfall in Bumbuna when he saw the deceased with a mobile phone in hand. He said that after a while, “I saw a large crowd approached us and they gave us merciless beating.”
The witness said: "a few days later when I enquired about the issue, I was told that Ibrahim Kamara was dead.’’ Kargbo noted that he could not link the accused persons to the offence, but that he later made a statement to the police at Bumbuna.
Saio Koroma, another witness, recalled that while they were attending a function on the said date at Bumbuna, Ibrahim Kamara (now deceased) showed up at the scene with a phone which he had an issue with because he had apparently taken a snap shot of some people who chased him. Koroma said: "Before long, I saw a large crowd of people who approached us and gave us merciless beating and they violently took Kamara away. He said he was told two days later that Kamara had died, following which he made a statement at the Bumbuna Police Station.
In his cross-examination, lawyer A. P. Conteh suggested to the witness that he came to know of Kamara's death two days after the alleged attack and beating and that because a crowd had attacked them, the witness was unable to identify the accused persons.
The witness responded that although he couldn’t identify everybody in the crowd, he recognized the four accused persons.
The prosecution alleges that the accused persons: Tamba Kargbo, Bockarie Kamara, Tamba Turay, and Saio Kargbo on Saturday 7th March 2020, at Waterfall, in Bumbuna conspired to commit a felony, leading to the unlawful murder of Ibrahim Kamara for which they now face two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and murder contrary to law.
Inspector I. G. Fofanah is prosecuting the matter, while all four accused persons are represented by lawyer A. P. Conteh.
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