By Fatou Sowe
The High Court in Banjul presided over by Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara on Monday watched the video containing the interviews of the late Solo Sandeng and others at the former national intelligence agency, in the ongoing criminal trial against the former director general of the agency Yankuba Badjie and eight other former officials of the agency.
When the case was called, Lawyer Antouman Gaye, the lead prosecutor in the case told the court that following its order last week, they have arranged for the viewing of what is contained in the hard drive.“I do not wish to make any comment on it”, said Lawyer Gaye.
At this juncture he called upon Lawyer Lamin S. Camara to lead the witness in identifying the said video in the hard drive.
“Mr. Badjie you told the court that you did a video coverage of the UDP demonstrators. Is that correct?”, asked Lawyer Camara. “Yes Sir”, responded the witness.
“You also told the court that you did the video coverage of the interviews?” “Yes”, replied the witness.
At that juncture the witness was asked to locate the said videos in the hard drive. PW7 Assan Badjie walked to the laptop and identified the videos of the UDP demonstrators.
The witness told the court that there are two videos. “The first one is named UDP demonstrators and the other one was named Master copy”, said PW7.
During the viewing of the first video, Solo Sandeng and other UDP demonstrators were seen standing, while two of them were seen sitting on the floor and those interviewing them were seen sitting round a table.
Nogoi Njie, Solo Sandeng, Modou Ngum, Kafu Bayo and others were seen in the video as they were interviewed one after the other. When Modou Ngum was being interviewed, he was seen licking his bruised arm as blood was seen oozing from his arm.
Solo Sandeng was seen in the video with an untidy shirt and a swollen hand. He was also seen wheezing and mumbling while answering to the various questions during the interview.
An emotional moment it was in the courtroom as many couldn’t help but sobbed while others had to excuse themselves from the crowded courtroom to weep outside. While the video is being played all the other accused persons were seen watching the video attentively, but Yankuba Badjie was seen bending.
The viewing of the video continues today 23 January, 2018 at 12noon.
