The high court judge will look into the claim made by the director of public prosecution, Saleh Barkun, that each of the sureties had signed a bond of D500,000 to secure the bail which they would forfeit in the event of Mr Jah jumping bail..
Abdoulie Jah and Ebrima Jobe appeared at the high court on Wednersday, July 3 after the state filed an affidavit that they should forfeit D1,000,000 to the state. The state prosecutor made this claim when lawyer Ebrima Jah was reported to have fled.
However, this claim was denied by the respondents in their affidavit of reply. Their counsel, Hawa Sisay-Sabally last week urged the court to refuse the claim made by the prosecutor. “The final reason why the application should not be granted is that the case before this court for which the accused is wanted to stand trial emanated from a civil proceeding. The criminal code gives a presiding judge the power to deal with the matter and the option to refer the matter to the General Legal Council,” she said. “It is not denied by the state that Lawyer Jah was fined D200,000 and banned for two years by the General Legal Council. There is no law that says a person can be punished twice.”
Mr Jah was arraigned on June 12 at the Special Criminal Division for attempting to bribe a high court judge to rule in favour of his client in a civil case. He is facing a single charge of official corruption. He is accused of offering Justice Awa Bah US$100,000 equivalent to D4,000,000 in a bid to influence her to decide the case in his favour in March 2014 while serving as counsel for the plaintiff in a suit involving Multi-Steel Company against Omar Jasseh. He has never appeared in court since charged.?
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