By Aminata Phidelia Allie
A magistrates’ court in Freetown has convicted and sentenced a 38-year-old woman to 12 months in prison or she pays a fine of Le 500,000 to the court’s treasury for obstructing the work of Ebola response teams.
Musu Esther Massaquoi, a resident of New England Ville in Western Freetown, was making a second appearance before Magistrate Seray-Wurie of Court No. 2 at Pademba Road, when she was convicted and sentenced.
She had earlier pleaded guilty to all three counts of obstruction contrary to the Public Emergency Regulations, 2014, a constitutional document in Sierra Leone, assault and using abusive languages against one Ebola contract tracer.
According to her defense counsel, Ansu Lansana, the convict, whose home had been quarantined after she lost her sister to the deadly disease, was “traumatized by the illness and subsequent death of her sister”, adding that the emergency regulations were new to her.
He pleaded with the court not to impose a custodial sentence on her, noting that she was a first time offender and would make an undertaking never to repeat the act. “My Lord, tamper justice with mercy”, lawyer Lansana said.
But Magistrate Wurie stated that his court “will not condone the conduct of the accused”. He said what she did was wrong, regardless of the fact that the emergency regulations were new to her “because she is an adult and what she did was a deliberate calculation”.
Without much ado, he said, Massaquoi would serve a 12-month jail term on each count, which he added would run concurrently. An alternative was for the convict to immediately pay a fine of Le 500,000 to the judicial sub-treasury.
© Politico 07/11/14
