By Amadou Jadama
Samba Sowe, a passenger van driver and Tijan Baldeh, a porter, were arraigned on Tuesday before Principal Magistrate Peter Che of Basse charged with killing Bakary Sabally at the Basse car park.
The duo is slammed with a single count of murder. However, they pleaded not guilty and were unrepresented
The bill of indictment filed by Chief Inspector Sanyang stated that on February 3, Samba and Tijan “jointly assaulted Bakary Sabally by hitting him on his face and head causing his death”.
CI Sanyang applied to the court for the case to be transferred to the high court since the lower court lacks the jurisdiction to try the matter, saying the punishment attached to the offence attracts a death sentence.
Magistrate Che upheld the prosecution’s application saying: “Since this court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the charge, I shall remand the accused persons and transfer the case file to the registrar of the high court for the chief justice to assign a judge of the high court.”
The registrar of the Basse Magistrates’ Court was given 48 hours to take the case file to the registrar of the high court.
