By Saio Marrah
Sahr Moywa, a miner who is said to have found a two hundred and sixty-four (264) carats diamond that is now allegedly missing, has testified before a magistrate court in Freetown about how he found the diamond.
Moywa was speaking before Magistrate Santigie Bangura on Monday August 19 2024.
Led in evidence by Lawyer Isaac Yusif Sesay the 21-year-old witness told the court that the mining site where he found the diamond is on the road leading to another mining site where he used to work. He identified the first accused Sheku Kabba alias ID card as the manager of the complainant, Benjamin Merer’s mining site and that the second accused, Tamba Lebbie was the manager of the Lebbie family and that the third accused, Jihad Basma is a diamond dealer who has a diamond office in Koidu.
He said on a particular day between April and May 2024, he was passing by the complainant’s site heading to his own when the second accused asked him to join them to mine.
He said following that, Sahr Lebbie who is thought to be on the run gave him a shovel to go into the pit and mine. He said at that point, water overflowed the pit so they had to leave and move elsewhere but that he later returned to the same pit and bailed out the water and discovered the diamond. Describing the diamond, the witness said it had eight sides, very white and was the size of a lime.
He said when he picked up the diamond he smiled and “Sahr Lebbie asked me what was happening to me. I told him I had found a diamond. I gave it to him and he then handed it over to Tamba Lebbie.” The first accused shook my hand and congratulated me.”
The witness recalled the first accused telling him that when their boss, the complainant returned to the site, he would be appreciated and that the complainant arrived at 14:00 hours with soft drinks for his workers.
According to the witness, the first accused told him to go home and promised to get back to him but when he returned to the mining site on the following day nobody spoke to him. He also told the court how the land owners who leased the property went to the site and tried to stop work as a result of which the second accused assaulted him but the wife of the Chief who was passing by intervened to stop him.
According to the witness, after three days he was told that the diamond weighed 75 carats to which he objected but the first accused asked him to be patient because they would buy him a bike and give him one thousand Leones. He said he rejected the offer.
The witness said he would finally inform the chief and other administrative authorities in the area before the matter was referred to the Mortema Police station, where the complainant found them. He said they were then detained in different police stations. He said he was in the same police van with the first accused heading to Sewafe station when the first accused told police that the diamond was in the possession of the third accused and that it weighed 264 carats. He said the police obtained a statement from him and released him.
During cross-examination by Lawyer Jessie M. Jengo, the witness said the Lebbie family owns the mining site and they leased it to the complainant. He said the diamond is bigger than a normal lime.
The three accused persons are charged on one count of conspiracy to defraud and another of embezzlement of the 264 carats diamond, estimated at forty-two million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars. The third accused is separately charged with receiving stolen goods.
The case resumes on the 27th August this year.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (21/08/24)
