By Francis H. Murray
Nineteen people arrested over the recent unrest in the fishing village of Tombo in the Waterloo Rural District are due back in court this morning after they were remanded in custody by Magistrate Hannah Bonnie following their first appearance on Friday last week on a five-count charge including conspiracy to commit an offence, malicious damage, setting fire to a public building and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Police prosecutors say the accused persons on Wednesday 6 May “conspired with other persons unknown to commit a felony contrary to law and damaged a number of household furniture and equipment with a total value of five million seven hundred and forty thousand leones being the property of a local resident of Tombo.”
The Prosecutors also allege that the accused persons “maliciously set fire to the Tombo community hospital and the Tombo police station being two public buildings”.
The first prosecution witness Richard Fomba Lebbie of the Criminal Investigations Department told the court that 15 of the accused persons were recognized and identified in a recognition parade conducted at the CID headquarters.
The witness recalled that he was on duty on Wednesday 6 May when a major incident was reported, followed by the handing-over of 16 of the accused persons by the OSD Operations Manager Chief Superintendent Dalton Senessie who reported that the suspects were engaged in a riotous conduct, setting fire to public buildings, malicious damage and other related offences in Tombo town. He said that after receiving the report he cautioned and questioned the suspects together with other officers and detained them.
In his cross examination of the first prosecution witness, lawyer representing the accused persons, Ibrahim Thorlie, challenged the witness that 14th accused Abubarkarr Conteh had told the police in his statement that he was not present at the scene of the alleged incident and that he was never identified during the identification parade. The witness agreed.
The lawyer also argued that the harbor master denied the allegation against him that he ordered that only 10 boats be allowed to go at sea on the day of the riot for which he was charged.
But the prosecution witness told the court that one Abdul Raman Turay who was not among the accused persons told them during the course of their investigations that only 10 boats were allowed to go at sea and promised to make Turay’s statement available to the defence at the next hearing.
The defence lawyer applied for bail on behalf of all accused persons on the grounds that none of them were a flight risk, citing the ban on flights and inter-district travels.
The Magistrate refused the application and remanded all 19 accused persons in jail to return to court this morning, 26th of May 2020.
The accused persons included the Tombo Community headman Sara Bah and the harbor master John Obi.
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