By Francis H. Murray
Magistrate Hannah Bonnie in Freetown has ruled that the court has no jurisdiction to determine or interpret the session of the application made by the former Social Welfare minister Dr. Sylvia Blyden for count 7 of the 9 counts against her to be expunged on grounds of timeliness.
Magistrate Bonnie said: ‘‘I have therefore not taken out time to look at the issue of statute of limitation because I believe that the session of law and the operative word on which the first accused depends as an application is subject to interpretation. In the circumstance I want to rule that this court has no jurisdiction to determine or interpret that session of law. Therefore your application based on this session of law relied upon is refused and the matter will proceed.’’
In her subsequent cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, M. K Allieu of the CID, Dr. Blyden argued that the charges against her were hurriedly prepared which according to her accounted for the number of errors made during the process.
Another application made by the accused pursuant to section 105 and 112 of the criminal procedure act for an amendment of the charge was also refused by the magistrate on the grounds that the document referred to was a property of the prosecution and that such application must follow due process which the accused failed to follow.
The witness also told the court that the residence of the first accused was broken into when she refused to willingly lead them to her residence, noting that the process was in conformity with what the search warrant dictated. He said by allowing journalists to display the bedroom and bathroom of the accused was in the interest of fair play and to save the police from allegations that may come from the first accused.
He went on to note that documents were found in her residence linking her to the detention of Alfred Paolo Conteh and the main correctional center.
The first accused also challenged the witness that during the course of investigations at the CID headquarter; the human rights commissioner and her deputy visited to ask questions and interview her but were driven away.
The witness rejected that saying if that was what happened, the commissioners would have made such report against the police.
The matter comes up again this morning.
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