Gambia News : State Agents Try to Drag Rambo Back to Court

Oct 23,2007 00:00 by editor

Agents of the state on Friday 19th October again tried to drag the recently released political detainee Hon. Ousman Rambo Jatta to a court in Kanifing. Mr. Jatta who is the councilor for Old Bakau and Cape Point Ward was recently released from 387 days of illegal detention by state agents when they arrested him on the 23rd of September 2006. Mr. Jatta was called by officers at the Bakau Police Station asking him to report at the Kanifing Magistrate’s Court to face charges that had been preferred against him before his September 2006 arrest and detention. In June of 2006 Mr. Jatta was arrested and detained for “uttering statements that are detrimental to national security.” Mr. Jatta belonged to a politically-concerned family who has been subjected to repeated state persecution over the last several years and some other members of the family are still in court facing what many believed to be politically motivated charges. However when Hon. Jatta appeared in court on that Friday the authorities at the Kanifing Magistrate’s court told him they could not find the case file. The state had repeatedly ignored pleas by the court that Mr. Jatta be produced to face it. The popular Mr. Jatta was accompanied by many supporters to the court. Mr. Jatta had pleaded not guilty to the charge in a court presided over by former Magistrate Kebba Sanyang who later became Attorney General and Secretary of State for Justice before his sacking few weeks ago.

Src : The Gambia Journal