Ansumana Trawally, a state witness was asked by the defence consel Borry Touray to produce receipts and correspondence printouts from his office and the Ministry of Finance. However when the case resumed yesterday, he presented the correspondence document between his office and the Ministry of Finance.
State prosecutor SH Barkum told the court that the witness was not allowed by the bank to collect receipts of the GRA bank account because, “he is not a signatory to the GRA account. He is the Commissioner General of GRA. I want the court to make order for the witness to produce the receipt from the bank,” Mr Touray insisted.
In replying to the counsel’s request, the director of public prosecution said the receipts of payments are associated with the account. “The document in issue is not within the power and control of the witness. He cannot produce them unless he fabricates receipts,” Barkum argued. The court will decide whether to order the witness to produce receipts or not when the case resumes on June 3.
The former minister is already serving a two-year jail term after being convicted by the Special Criminal Court Division of the high court. He is currently standing trial on three counts of false information and economic crime.
He is accused of “recklessly causing monetary loss to GRA” by constituting a taskforce which re-assessed and reviewed downward the tax liability of several tax defaulters as found by the Tax Commission.
State prosecutors charged Mr Jobarteh with lying to the Office of the President that over D200 million had been recovered from the tax def
aulters and deposited into the GRA account at Guaranty Trust Bank. He denied any wrong doing.
By Binta Bah
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