Dear editor,
Let me congratulate – belatedly – Lawyers Gaye Sowe, Neneh Cham, Salieu Taal and Abdoulie Fatty, who acted as friends of the court, for their tremendous hard work – leading to the Supreme Court’s recent dismissal of retired Captain Yankuba Touray’s claim of constitutional immunity in the murder trial of former finance minister, Ousman Koro Ceesay. I want to thank all the co-counsel in the case, for their hard work and cooperation, to secure the dismissal of Yankuba’s immunity claim – and I could not be more proud of them. Retired Captain Edward Singhatey, Peter Singhatey and Yankuba Touray, among others, will forever stand “accused” of brutally killing Ousman Koro Ceesay – and in my world, there is nowhere that they may go to repair their damaged reputation and infamy. As far as I am concerned, Edward Singhatey in particular, is guilty as accused/charged, so to speak. In fact, weeks or possibly days before Ousman Koro Ceesay was murdered in June 1995, Koro had confided in one of his friends (now late – Musa Ann, formerly of the Central Bank of The Gambia) his fears regarding Edward Singhatey’s machinations, accusing Edward Singhatey of pursuing a vendetta against him. The well-known Latin dictum sums it up fittingly: “Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done”.
By the way, speaking of court cases, two UK court judgements on different Gambia-related legal test cases here that I was hired to serve as independent expert witness have now been published online.
https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/pa-04633-2017
https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/pa-06693-2017
The first case involves a Gambian national, who suffers from chronic kidney disease and had to apply for leave to remain in the UK on the basis of human rights, arguing that sending him back to The Gambia would only worsen his health condition because there was only limited dialysis treatment available in The Gambia. The second case involves a Gambian who identifies himself as being gay, and was scheduled to be deported by the UK Home Office to the Gambia, following the election victory of President Barrow. Both of them have now been allowed to stay in the UK on human rights grounds.
Dr Ebrima Ceesay
Birmingham, UK
