By Amadou Jadama
Two men, Ebrima Badjie and Modou Lamin Sabally, were each slammed with eight years mandatory jail term by Principal Magistrate Anna O Mendy of the Brikama magistrates’ court for stealing from a house in Brikama Newtown.
The court further ordered the convicts to pay a compensation of D87, 500 each to the victims in default to serve two additional years in prison.
The duo was charged alongside two other persons Mohammed Faye and Cherno Colley, with conspiracy to commit a felony, house breaking and stealing.
However, Faye and Colley were acquitted and discharged by the court for lack of evidence against them.
In passing sentencing, Magistrate Mendy said all four persons were arrested in the room of second accused Modou Lamin Sabally where all the stolen items too were recovered.
She said in the confessional statements of the first and second accused Ebrima Badjie and Modou Lamin Sabally, the duo admitted to stealing, while the third and fourth accused Muhammed Faye and Cherno Colley, claimed they knew nothing about the theft.
“Therefore, there was no direct evidence linking Faye and Colley to the theft, despite the fact that they were all arrested in the house. And again, the confessional statements from Ebrima Badjie and Modou Lamin Sabally disassociated them from the offence,” Magistrate Mendy said, before acquitting and discharging Faye and Colley.
Ebrima Badjie and Modou Lamin Sabally were said to have conspired among themselves to unlawfully break and enter into the house of one Louie Mendy with intent to steal.
