By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Prosecution at the military tribunal, presently trying 14 soldiers of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces, has requested for a 2-week adjournment to respond to “no case” submissions made by the defense in September and October.
The team, led by state prosecutor, Gerald Soyei, on Wednesday November 12 asked for extra time, after it failed to meet a 5-week timeline it had to prepare its response to the defense team’s submission.
According to Soyei, he needed more time “to do a thorough job” and to input what he had written out into his computer. He said the defense lawyers’ submissions were “very solid and the work too tedious”.
Lead defense counsel, Julius Nye Cuffie, objected to more time being granted to the prosecutor, saying that it was a “deliberate ploy to delay the case further as Soyei had already failed to respond in a month and week’s period.”
Cuffie told the court that should the prosecutor fail again to submit on the requested time, his team would apply for the matter to be withdrawn for judgment in the absence of its response to their submissions.
“In the interest of progress and justice, his application for an adjournment should be discountenanced by this court,” Cuffie submitted.
However, Judge Advocate Otto During granted the prosecution’s request and adjourned the matter to Wednesday, 26 November 2014.
Arrested and imprisoned in August of last year, the 14 soldiers were alleged to have planned a mutiny at the Teko Barracks in Makeni, Northern Sierra Leone. They faced an eight count charge of conspiracy, mutiny, failure to suppress mutiny and incitement to mutiny. They denied all allegations but had since been in prison at Pademba Road in Freetown.
© Politico 13/11/14
