By Francis H. Murray
The trial of Mariama Sarjoh Barrie and Ibrahim Bah for the alleged murder of five-year old Kadija Saccoh has open at the High Court in Freetown before Justice John Bosco Allieu presiding and a 13-member jury at the High Court in Freetown.
In his opening address to the jurors shortly after they were empanelled, State Prosecutor Joseph A. K. Sesay said that prior to June 17th 2020, the deceased lived with her mother who now resides in the UK and that the father of the deceased left for the US and rented an apartment at No 25 Spur Road for the mother and Khadija. He said when the mother of the deceased was about to travel out of Sierra Leone she left her daughter in the care of 1st accused who later moved into the apartment with her son.
He said in the evening on of 20th June 2020, while the deceased was at home with both accused persons, the 1st accused had cause to call a friend and inform her that the deceased was not feeling too well. Lawyer said that evening the 1st accused raised an alarm alerting neighbors that the deceased had suddenly fallen from her hands following which she was taken to the Lumley Health Center where no treatment was administered because the doctor on duty thought the child was already dead.
The prosecutor said the doctor then referred the matter to the Connaught hospital but the case ended up at Choithram’s Hospital where the case was recorded as having being brought in dead.
Lawyer Sesay said the accused persons and their relatives hastily wanted to make some funeral arrangements for the deceased without any reference to the father adding that upon receipt of the information the father halted the funeral arrangements and instructed his brother in Freetown to report the matter to the police.
He went on to note that upon investigations, both accused persons were arrested and charged.
Justice Allieu told the jury that the burden of proof rested on the prosecution which they must discharge “beyond reasonable doubt by way of evidence.” Referring to them as judges of facts, he urged them to be fair, unbiased and only concern themselves with the evidence before the court and nothing else.
The first prosecution witness Abubakarr Saccoh recognized the 1st accused as the sister to his ex-wife and the 2nd accused as the son of the 1st accused and the deceased as his daughter. He told the court that he was in the US on the 17th June 2020, when he received a call from one Isata Jabbie Kabba who informed him that his daughter was sick and had been taken to the hospital. He said she called again after 10 minutes to say that the girl had died.
The witness said he instructed that the burial be delayed for further investigations to determine the cause of death, which, according to him they refused on religious grounds as Muslims.
Under cross-examination by lawyer Alhaji Mustapha Kamara, the witness said that when his ex-wife went to take the deceased from the house of Isata J. Kabba, she didn’t inform him and that the deceased was in the custody of the 1st accused during which time he spoke to her only once and never visited their apartment.
The second prosecution witness Emmanuel Lahai an electrical engineer, recognized the Mr. Saccoh as his boss and the deceased as the daughter, the 1st accused as the sister of his bosses’ ex-wife and the 2nd accused as her son.
He recalled that he was at home at around 10pm on the 17th June 2020, when he received a call from his boss informing him that his daughter had died but that he wasn’t satisfied with the circumstances around her death.
He said he had cause to visit the house of the deceased where he met relatives of the 1st and 2nd accused persons making arrangements for her burial. He told the court that upon the instructions of his boss, he made a report to the Lumley police station but was later referred to the CID where statement was obtained was him.
The witness said he was questioned about the whereabouts of the deceased and the following morning, he contacted Mrs. Kabba who told them that the corpse of the deceased had been conveyed to the Columbia Davies funeral home.
He added that he and some police officers and other relatives visited the funeral home but were denied access even after the involvement of Mrs. Kabba, which he said prompted the police to contact Dr. Simeon Owiz Koroma to conduct a postmortem examination on the deceased.
The witness said that after the postmortem was conducted, the police informed him that they needed to take the 1st accused to the Lumley police station and the following day they visited the house of the 1st accused where the 2nd accused was also arrested.
Detective Sergeant 10745 Joy Mariama Kargbo of the Lumley Police Division recalled that she was on duty on the 18th June 2020 when a case of alleged murder was reported by one Lahai on behalf of Abubarkarr Saccoh that on the 17th of June 2020, one Khadija Saccoh aged five of 25 Spur Road in Freetown died while in the custody of the first accused for which they suspected foul play.
She said she obtained statement from Lahai on the same day and inquired about the whereabouts of the deceased and was told that the body was conveyed at the Columbia Davies Funeral home on Circular Road in Freetown.
Detective Sergeant Kargbo said together with Lahai and other officers they visited the funeral home but were prevented from seeing the body which resulted in them requesting for an autopsy to be conducted on the of the deceased by Dr. Simeon Owiz Koroma.
She continued that the following day, she and other officers including family relatives of the deceased witnessed the autopsy examination conducted at the Connaught Hospital followed by the issuance of the certified medical cause of death of the deceased.
The witness said that upon receipt of the cause of death certificate which indicated that the deceased died as a result of manual strangulation, she had cause to arrest the 1st accused who was with them at the time and took her to the Lumley police station for further investigation.
She said on the 20th of June, she and the investigating team visited the alleged scene of crime and upon information she received from Isata Jabbie Kabba, she arrested the 2nd accused and took him to the Lumley police station where “both accused persons were contemporaneously interviewed but the 1st accused requested for her lawyer to be present and the arrangement was done.”
Under cross-examination by lawyer Alhaji M. Kamara on behalf of the 1st accused, the witness said she arrested the 1st accused upon receipt of the cause of death certificate which indicated that the deceased died as a result of manual strangulation.
Whilst being cross-examined by lawyer Emmanuel T. Koroma on behalf of the 2nd accused, the witness admitted that the 2nd accused had made a denial statement to the police, adding that the accused was arrested after she received information from Mrs. Kabba. She denied taking any instructions from Mrs. Kabba.
The witness said that the accused told the police that the deceased was very close to him and had lived together with him for four years without any reports of any form of physical violence. She maintained that the arrest of the accused was lawful.
The matter continues.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online
