Mr Juwara, Hamidou Jallow, the former principal land officer and Mr Konteh are standing trial on charges of negligence of official duty, making false documents, uttering false documents, obtaining goods by false pretence, abuse of office, disobedience of statutory and lawful orders. They denied all the charges.
Continuing with his defence on Thursday, Mr Konteh recalled that he was given a letter by the state in 2005 regarding Tanji Layout compensation.
Upon confirming the letter, his lawyer, Sheriff Tambadou, applied to tender it as an exhibit but the state objected against its admissibility on the grounds that the letter sought to be tendered was the one rejected by the court and as such it could not be admitted. The state counsel Abdourahman Bah argued that Mr Konteh had categorically stated that he had thoroughly searched for the said document but could not find it and urged the court to reject it.
However, the attorney for Mr Konteh argued that his client was charged with criminal offences and since the matter was a criminal trial, his client should be given every opportunity to clear his name as his liberty was at stake.
Barrister Tambadou said the document which was marked ‘Rejected 1’ by the court was a secondary copy of a document which was different from the document they intended to tender which he said was the primary evidence. He urged the court to admit the document.
Responding on point of law, the state prosecutor, intimated to the court that he wanted to reply on points of law in order to cite authorities but the authorities he wanted to buttress on were not with him in court and therefore applied for an adjournment which was granted by the court.
The matter was adjourned at that point to today for continuation.
Meanwhile, the copy of the first letter of compensation sought to be tendered by the defence was rejected by the court.
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