By Francis H Murray
Magistrate Hannah Bonnie in Freetown has expressed disappointment at the conduct of deference lawyers, which she said often result in unnecessary delays of court proceedings.
She described the attitude of some defence lawyers in respect of their representation of litigants as appalling, noting that it conflicted with the principle of expeditious trial.
‘‘We come to court, the prosecution is present and the bench is always present, but defence lawyers do not come to court. And this is done without any explanation for their absence, which amounts to treating the court with levity,’’ she stated.
Magistrate Bonnie’s outrage came after the ongoing matter involving the alleged Lunsar rioters was mentioned in court on Monday 19th October, with some of the defence lawyers absent, thereby stalling proceedings of the matter.
‘‘I have warned over and again that lawyers need to be taking the court seriously. In essence, if you are not coming to court, write formally to the court indicating reasons for your absence. But the continued absence of lawyers is putting so much cost and burden on the government to take care of 31 litigants and such a behavior is in violation of the rights of litigants to not only fair and speedy investigations, but also to the administration of justice,’’ she added.
She lamented that the essence of preliminary investigations is to prove whether the accused persons in any matter have a case to answer in respect of the offences they face, citing investigations into the Lunsar incident that had been going on since June 2020 and which has taken over three months with no progress made because of the low level of cooperation from the part of the defence lawyers.
Magistrate Bonnie went on to note that keeping the accused persons in custody is adding to the already challenging task on the government in taking care of accused persons while in detention.
She stressed that the defence lawyers must consider the fact that the offences against the accused persons are serious and non-bailable, which she said meant that as long as progress is not made, the accused persons who are all residents of Lunsar will remain in prison at the behest of their lawyers.
The accused persons are before the court for preliminary investigations into a fourteen count charges ranging from conspiracy to murder, murder, and malicious damage, emanating from a violent attack on the residence of Paramount Chief Koblo Queen II.
The prosecution alleges that Mohamed Kanu and 30 others, on diverse dates between the 1st April 2020 and the 30th April at Lunsar Town, in Port Loko District, in the Northern Region of Sierra Leone, conspired with other persons unknown to murder, commit grievous bodily harm, murdered one Alie Kabia, and maliciously damaged properties worth over Le11 billion belonging to Paramount Chief Koblo Queen II.
Magistrate Bonnie adjourned the matter to 23rd October 2020 for continuation of investigations.
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