By Saio Marrah
The 30th prosecution witness in the ongoing treason trial of Amadu Koita Makalo and 11 others was cross-examined on Monday 20th May 2024 at the High Court in Freetown focusing on his role in the police investigation of the case with particular reference how he analyzed the CCTV footage from the main gate of the Pademba Road correctional center on 26th November 2023.
Detective Inspector Mohamed Jusu also examined and analyzed five phones of the accused persons, especially their call logs, WhatsApp conversation and SMS’ exchanged among the accused persons in connection with the alleged coup incident.
Under cross-examination by Lawyer S.A. Conteh, representing the first accused, Koita, the witness said when he went to the Pademba Road prison facility, he did not examine the camera installed there, but the footage obtained from the camera. He said he could neither tell the type of CCTV camera installed at the prison yard nor was he present when the footage under reference was extracted from the system at the correctional service.
According to the witness, the 34 minutes and 12 seconds footage given to him by the correctional service which he played during his testimony in chief was not tampered with but agreed that he did not do digital video recorder logs to ascertain how genuine the footage was because it was the end product that was presented to him.
The witness also agreed that the footage has no sound and as a result he could not tell what conversation Koita was having with the other gunmen shown in the footage at the main gate of the Pademba Road Prison and the footage did not show the first accused, Koita firing a rifle.
During cross examination by Lawyer Emmanuel Teddy Koroma representing the fourth accused, the witness said he discovered that Koita’s phone received WhatsApp text messages from the fourth accused, sending him pleasantries numerous times between November 26th and 1st December 2023.
Asked whether such messages amounted to an offence, the witness replied, “not necessarily, but it depends on whether the other person she was communicating with had not been declared wanted by the police.”
He said the text messages were part of the reason the fourth accused was before the court and that apart from those messages, there was no other evidence connecting the two accused persons.
Under cross-examination by lawyer Africanus Sorie Sesay representing the third accused, the witness admitted that during the investigation he found out that the third accused and two others, Yapo and Sorie Ba Mansaray were all attached to former President, Ernest Bai Koroma as security guards detailed by the state.
The trial continues.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (27/05/24)
