By Mohamed T Massaquoi
After over 15 months, the Magistrate Court in Pujehun in the south of the country has committed to High Court a case of an alleged gang rape involving four men against one Christiana Juma Kamara who died.
Magistrate Alford Fidawi said last Friday that the case was committed to the High Court in Bo, also in southern Sierra Leone, on two count charges; conspiracy to commit felony (1) and murder (2).
He said initially the suspects were five in number who were at the Pujehun District Correctional centre, but ‘’before their final appearance for the matter to be committed to high court one died as a result of ill health and that is the reason why four of them are now committed.’’
Having closed his case on Friday when his team applied for the matter to be charged to High Court, the Police Prosecutor Samuel Nugbama told politico exclusively on Wednesday that was “the 15th appearance” at the court. He said the body of the deceased had been found on 17 September, 2013 by school boys who were playing football on the field of the Holy Family Primary school near the police station at the centre of Pujehun, after the “gang rape” occurred the day before. First appearance in the matter was in November, but the pace at which the case has been moving has caused a public outcry in the district.
The District Civil Society Chairman Ibrahim Swarray stated: “I am not happy even when the case has been committed to High Court considering the time the incident occurred.”
He said there had been cases in which girls as young as 9 years were “abused sexually,” but the cases had died a ‘natural death.’
“The justice system is not well-functioning,” Swarray stated.
Also, Mohamed Junior Humper, manager of Leleima Guest House in Pujehun Town where the 27-year-old Christiana Juma Kamara worked before her death, said the matter should have been committed to High Court long before “now if they are serious about it.”
The Court Registrar Joshua Fayia Mansaray said up to Wednesday, February 11, 2015 when he was speaking to Politico the court had only “two sittings in a month” and that the magistrate was resident in Bo.
© Politico 12/02/15
