Gambia News : Gambian lawyers boycott court sessions in protest

Gambian lawyers are currently boycotting all the courts in the tiny West African nation following a decision by prosecutors at the state law office to charge one of their colleagues, Moses Richards with sedition and giving false information to a public officer, APA learns here on Wednesday.

The President of the Gambia Bar Association, Sheriff Tambedou is quoted by the Wednesday edition of the Foroyaa newspaper as saying that the Bar started their action on Monday10th of January to seek protection and respect for their professional activities and that they will resume their normal duties on Thursday 14th of January 2011. He said the decision was arrived after members of the Bar agreed that no lawyer will appear in any court in the Gambia during this period.

He went on to say that the reason for this protest was triggered by the recent arrest, detention and leveling of charges against Barrister Moses Richards and by extension to all of them as barristers. He said Barrister Richards wrote a letter to the Sheriff of the High Court acting on the instructions of his client which was information that was conveyed to him by his client.

He said lawyers in The Gambia and that of the world do have a protection that when they talk, it does not mean that they are talking on their own behalf, but on behalf of their clients. He said what they as lawyers normally do, is that they tell the third party what their client has told them. He said they as lawyers cannot be held directly accountable for those words or actions ; adding that if one of them is arrested and detained on account of such, which means that protection is taken away from all of them which he said is dangerous.

He said it is the public that consult lawyers to act for them, noting that if those lawyers turn to be in trouble because they have simply acted for their clients, then it means that they as lawyers cannot effectively represent those clients. He said if one should come to him for representation and when he as the lawyer does the representation, he/she will be in trouble, “then how can I represent you ?” he asked. He said this is why it is felt necessary for the authorities to know their position and what they want, adding that the action of not going to any court is as a result of that.

Asked whether if the charges are not dropped against Barrister Richards the protest will continue, the President of the Bar said that was not the resolution of the meeting he presided over. He said the agreement was that they would sit without going to court for three days and after that the Bar would meet again to brainstorm on the way forward.

Tambedou said the protest is meant to protect all of them from persecution.

The President of the Bar said Richards was sent to prison without a court order. He said as far as they are concerned, Barrister Richards was not remanded in custody. He said Barrister Richards was in police custody, noting that the last night he spent in custody before coming to court was in Mile 2 Prison (about 2 Miles from Banjul) which was unlawful. He said they did not know who took Barrister Richards to Mile 2 Prison, and how he was taken to jail, adding that only a court can remand a person and as far as they were concerned, they were in court and that did not happen.