By Fatou Gassama
Justice Isatou Janneh of the Bundung High Court yesterday acquitted and discharged three accused persons in an FGM trial, blasting police for a “shoddy” investigation that collapsed the case.
The three women were charged over the death of a baby girl reportedly subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), which is outlawed in The Gambia.
One of them, Fatou Camara was charged with prohibition of female circumcision, which carries a life imprisonment as punishment while the other two, Oumie Sawaneh and Hawa Conteh, were charged with being accomplices to female circumcision.
In her ruling yesterday, the judge found the prosecution had no licence to proceed after investigators failed basic legal standards in a case involving the death of an infant “under suspicious and serious circumstances”.
“A number of witnesses, including police officers, acknowledged under cross-examination that they did not personally visit the scene of the alleged incident, nor did they undertake any independent investigative steps beyond receiving and relaying information,” Justice Janneh ruled.
“This omission,” she pointed out, “is significant.”
According to her, key confessional statements were thrown out for violating Section 31(2) of the Evidence Act.
She said the police failed to secure an independent witness during recording and signing — a mandatory requirement.
“As a result, this court was left with no option but to reject those statements,” Janneh stated.
“It is unfortunate that the mandatory statutory safeguards governing the recording of confessional statements were not complied with, particularly in a case of this nature,” she stated, noting that compliance would have enabled the court to properly consider the evidences in accordance with the law.
Justice Janneh added that the failure to comply with these procedural requirements, in effect, deprived the court of potentially critical evidence.
She called the lapses a direct threat to justice. “These observations are not made lightly, but underscore the importance of thorough, professional, and legally compliant investigations, especially in cases involving serious offences and vulnerable victims. Investigative lapses of this nature not only weaken the prosecution’s case but also undermine the administration of justice,” she declared.
Justice Janneh went on to set all three accused free, stating: “Accordingly, the no-case-to-answer submission filed on behalf of the first accused person and also on behalf of the second and third accused persons, both filed on the 1st April 2026, succeeds and the same is upheld. The accused persons are hereby accordingly acquitted and discharged on all counts.”
