By Saio Marrah
State prosecutors have brought in their eighth witness, Detective Sergeant Mohamed Kamara in connection with a riotous conduct case against Ali Jaffal and six other Lebanese nationals.
Sergeant Kamara told the court that together with another colleague he obtained a statement from the first accused, Ali Jaffal. He said on April 5, 2024, he was on duty at the Lumley police station at 23:00 hours when he received information about chaos at Young Sportsmen Club (YSC), at Wilkinson road.
He said the Local Unit Commander (LUC) at the time; Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohamed Turay left the station together with other police personnel for the crime scene and later brought in the first accused and others. The investigator said he was assigned to obtain statements from the first and second accused Ali and Abdul Jaffal respectively.
Under cross-examination, the witness told the court that he did not do any other thing besides obtaining a statement and that the accused told him he did not partake in the incident at YSC.
The investigator said he did not visit the crime scene as the LUC handed the accused over to him. He said the second accused also denied all the allegations put to him.
Another prosecution witness, Detective Constable John Momoh Turay also from the CID unit of Lumley police station, said together with another colleague he obtained separate statements from Abass Antar and Naif Antar as the fifth and sixth accused persons respectively.
He went on to say that after the statements were read out to the accused persons they affirmed it to be correct and affixed their thumbprints on the document.
All the investigators tendered the statements to the court.
Popular businessman, Ali Jaffal and the six others are charged with a range of offences including wounding with intent, assault causing actual bodily harm, throwing missile, affray and other related offences. Ali Jaffal is separately charged with other offences.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (21/08/24)
