Magistrate Muhammed Krubally said there was no evidence that Alhaji Juldeh Bah wrote a petition to the Office of President. “Based on the facts and evidences presented before this court, the prosecution has woefully failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. I am conscious of the charge sheet containing the offence, but the weakness of the prosecution is that, it did not exhibit any supporting evidence regarding such charges in proving the accused’s guilt. The accused Alhaji Juldeh Bah is found not guilty and hereby acquitted and discharged,” Magistrate Krubally declared.
Mr Bah was arraigned at the Banjul courts on July 9, 2014 on a single count of giving false information to a public servant. He was accused of writing a petition to the Office of the President that his daughter was unlawfully evicted from her matrimonial house, which information he knew was false. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. The prosecution called two witnesses to testify while the accused gave a lone testimony in his defence.
According to the magistrate, neither the first witness nor the second witness stated in their testimonies that Mr Bah wrote a petition to the Office of the President stating the unlawful eviction of his daughter. “There was no petition in the mind of the court written regarding the unlawful eviction of the accused’s daughter. Hence, the court is not provided with any petition either documentary evidence or oral evidence on any petition written, then, this court is therefore unable to speculate and act on the content of the document that is not before it,” he said.
“It is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt subject to what I have already said as to the defence of insanity and also subject to statutory exceptions. If there is reasonable doubt created by either the prosecution or the defence, and if the prosecution has not made out its case, the accused is entitled to be acquitted. Even if the petition was written by the accused as the prosecution alleged, this court is not in receipt of such a petition, since it has not been exhibited as evidence. It is trite law that the court does not speculate on the content of the document that is not before it,” Magistarte Krubally added.
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