DPP Hadi Saleh Barkum consequently applied for an adjournment which was duly granted by the court without any objection raised by the defence. The matter will now be heard on May 7. The state had presented its first witness, policeman Musa Jarju, during the past fortnight of the trial.
Mr Jobarteh is answering to multiple charges both at the magistrates and high courts. He is facing two separate criminal charges at the high court: abuse of office and illegal possession of land and just recently, the state filed new charges of false information and economic crimes.
According to the new bill of indictment filed by the state prosecutors on count one, the prosecution alleged that in July 2013 while attorney general and minister of justice, Mr Jobarteh recklessly caused monetary loss to the Gambia Revenue Authority a public body by constituting a tax force which reassessed and reviewed downward task liability of several tax defaulters as found by the tax commission.
Count two revealed that Mr Jobarteh being the attorney general and minister of justice falsely informed the Office of the President that over D200 million had been recovered from the tax defaulters and deposited in the GRA recovery account with the Guaranty Trust Bank.
Count three alleged that he informed the commissioner general of GRA that there was a cabinet approval to establish a task force to reassess the tax liabilities of defaulters as shown in the Tax Commission Report knowing such information to be false.
By Baba Sillah
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