By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Prosecution at the military tribunal presently trying 13 soldiers of the Sierra Leone Army has questioned the competence of a defense witness to testify before the court as a provost commander, arguing that a particular entry in the Daily Occurrence Book was not made by him.
The prosecution team, led by state prosecutor, Gerald Soyei, raised the objection after they realized that an entry about the detention of the first accused, Private Momoh Kargbo, was not made by the supposed witness as his name, force number and signature were not reflected in the entry.
“Since the entry contains neither the witness’ name nor his signature, it is vague and highly unreliable and indicates that the witness is not the maker of the entry concerning the first accused”, Soyei argued. He urged the court to therefore reject the witness (DW2) and the Daily Occurrence Book which was later tendered to form part of the evidence in court.
The accused and first defense witness had stated in his testimony that he was in a guardroom on the date of the alleged mutiny.
In his reply, lead defense counsel, Julius Nye Cuffie, argued that his witness is a competent one and must testify in the trial. He based his argument on section 70 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965, which he said allowed police officers to tender in evidence medical report forms authored by medical doctors, adding that that law was the regulator of all courts in Sierra Leone.
“Such medical report forms are not signed by police officers but by medical doctors but the courts do allow them to be tendered in evidence”, Cuffie stated.
He further argued that his witness was the most appropriate person to tender the Daily Occurrence Book because he supervised all other provosts at the guardroom. He urged the bench to discountenance the argument of the prosecution.
Judge Advocate Otto During upheld the argument of the defense and ordered that the witness should be allowed to testify in the trial.
Outlining some of his duties as Provost Commander, Sergeant 18167772 Ekundayo Vincent, attached to the Fourth Battalion in Makeni, informed the court that he detained in custody soldiers who flouted military rules. He said Private Momoh Kargbo was handed over to him for detention on August 14 2013, entry for which, he added, he made in the Daily Occurrence Book. The Book was produced and tendered in court.
“As long as a soldier is in detention, he is not permitted to go out without escort,” Vincent told the court. The witness added that he was surprised to learn in court that Private Kargbo went out of detention to even drink tea.
Under cross examination by prosecutor Soyei, DW2 disclosed that he worked 12 hours a day adding that eight other provost officers were attached to the guardroom under his supervision. He also disclosed that the accused was in fact in detention for about a week, contrary to the prosecution’s assertion that the accused spent only two days in custody.
The soldiers were arrested and imprisoned in August of 2013 and they faced an eight-count charge of conspiracy, mutiny, incitement to mutiny and failure to surpress mutiny. They deny all charges but they have been at the country’s correctional facility on Pademba Road since then.
The matter comes up again on Wednesday January 21.
© Politico 20/01/15
