By Baba Sillah
After wrapping up his evidence as the prosecution witness 15, Alagie Mbara Gaye who identified himself as a spy in the trial of the former embattled state spy chief, Yankuba Badgie and eight other officials, testified that he was told where the infamous ‘Bambadinka’ was located at the State Intelligence Services formerly, NIA, headquarters in Banjul. Bambadinka, crocodile hole in Mandinka, is one of the torture chambers of the ex-President Jammeh’s notorious NIA.
However the witness could not tell the court exactly where ‘Bambadinka’ was located when further quizzed by the defence counsel, S Fatty who also asked him to tell the court where the office of Saidy Bah is also located. In response, he adduced that Saidy Bah does not have office despite it was put to him that his office is located at the entrance of the agency.
He explained that Mbemba Camara was not present when the corpse of Solo Sandeng was evacuated. “I would not know whether one could see ‘Bambadinka’ at the entrance of the Agency. I and Lamin Lang Sanyang helped the dressing of Solo Sandeng but Lamin Lang Sanyang never told me it was a corpse laying down.”
Background
The accused persons, Yankuba Badgie, Louie Richard Leese Gomez, Saihou Omar Jeng, Baboucarr Sallah, Yusupha Jammeh, Haruna Susso, Tamba Mansary and Lamin Darboe are being tried on charges of murder, conspiracy among other related charges for the murder of Solo Sandeng, a political activist.
Mr Badjie and co were first arraigned before the Magistrate Court in Banjul in early February last year but the case was later transferred to the High Court in Banjul which has the jurisdiction to try the matter since it is a capital offence. The officials however denied any wrong doing and have been in remand.
In March 2017, The Standard was reliably informed that the state hired French pathologists to conduct a forensic search on the corpse of Mr Sandeng but up till now, the results of the forensic experts remained unknown to the public.
The twelve bills of indictment filed by the state prosecutors included conspiracy, murder, assaults, forgery and making documents without authority.
