By Francis H. Murray
Magistrate Hannah Bonnie has on Friday 12th June 2020 withdrawn files relating to the case of former Social Welfare Minister Dr. Sylvia Blyden and Hussain Muckson Sesay for ruling after Blyden, who is representing herself, applied for one of the charges against her to be expunged on grounds of timeliness.
Blyden argued that in count SEVEN, which is defamatory libel, the prosecution alleged that the defamatory material was posted sometime in October 2018, and according to her the post had existed for more than twenty one months.
The accused referred to sections of the Public Order Act No. 32 of 1965 which she said is clear that no person can be charged with the offence of defamatory libel having committed the offence for a period of six months.
State prosecutor Yusuf Isaac Sesay, in his objection, argued that the application was inappropriate because it should have been made at the time the charges were being read to her in court. Sesay said: “We have taken one witness already. Besides, in preliminary investigation, if you think the charges are erroneous or otherwise, there is an opportunity for a no case submission.” He added that Blyden’s application was a ploy to waste the court’s time and urged Magistrate Bonnie to discountenance Blyden’s application.
In her further cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, Superintendent M.K. Allieu, the accused said she was curious to know how her social media post about the President breached national security and whether President Bio who is alleged to have been defamed complained to the police.
In his response, Superintendent Allieu said he did not take any statement from the President in respect of the case. He said: “talking to the President is irrelevant. The President does not need to complain before we take action on something which we think is defamatory.”
Lawyer Melron Nicole Wilson, who represents the second accused, Hussein Mukson Sesay, applied for his client’s laptop computer, which remains with the police, to be returned to him, arguing that his client was a student of Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and had his lecture notes on the computer.
Magistrate Bonnie replied that the application “came too early” as she could not return what was not before the court, adding that the laptop in question was being used as evidence and was yet to be tendered in court.
The case resumes on Wednesday 17th June 2020.
Dr. Sylvia Blyden is jointly charged with Hussain Muckson Sesay, a third year Engineering student of Fourah Bay College, with seditious libel, false publication, defamatory libel and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, among others.
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