Detained ex-Deputy Minister Wins Bail

M. Sarjo Jallow has been detained incommunicado!
Ex-deputy Minister,  M. Sarjo Jallow has been detained incommunicado!

Justice O. Ottaba of the Special Criminal Division of the Banjul High Court yesterday ruled in favour of Momodou Sajo Jallow, the detained Ex-Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, who was under NIA custody, and granted him bail of D200,000.

According to his lawyer A.A.B. Gaye, the applicant was detained by the NIA incommunicado and was not charged or brought to court, nor told why he was arrested and denied access to his family.

He has been under NIA custody for one month now.

Senior counsel Gaye then filed a motion, seeking an order to unconditionally release the applicant from NIA headquarters in Banjul on bail.

The applicant was arrested on 2 September 2016, by plainclothes officers at Manjai and detained at the NIA.

In his ruling, Justice Ottaba recalled that the application was brought under section 19 of the constitution and section 99 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He said according to the affidavit, the applicant since his arrest had been held incommunicado and denied access to family and had not been charged or arraigned before a court of law.

He had not been released conditionally or unconditionally, and the reason for his arrest was not known.

Justice Ottaba held that he would exercise his discretion judicially and judiciously by granting bail to the applicant on the following terms:

Bail was granted to the applicant of D200,000 with two Gambian sureties, with a property.

The accused person must submit his travel documents to the principal registrar of the high court and the sureties should swear to an affidavit of means.

Author: Halimatou Ceesay

Source: The Point Newspaper

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