By Aisha Tamba
Principal Magistrate Omar Jabang of the Kanifing court has granted bail to the 23 youths who were caught in a police raid and charged with idle and disorderly behaviour causing common nuisance.
The young men comprising Gambians, Senegalese and Sierra Leoneans were arraigned in court last week Tuesday where they all pleaded not guilty to the police allegations.
The police prosecutor ASP Oley Bobb had prayed for the continuous detention of the men on the grounds that they conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause breach of the peace.
Delivering his ruling yesterday, Magistrate Jabang granted the accused persons bail on the grounds that the offenses they are charged with are all bailable and the reasons provided by the prosecution are not enough to refuse the accused persons bail. “This is because the accused persons enjoy constitutional presumption of innocence,” he said.
He therefore granted a D25,000 bail to each with a Gambian surety.