By Janet Sesay
The prosecutor representing the Inspector General of Police, A.J.M. Bockarie, submitted that the deceased (Madison Bio) was unlawfully killed by the accused. He made his submission yesterday before Magistrate Santigie Bangura of the Freetown Magistrate Court No.1.
In his submission, he said that the prosecution relies on the entire evidence given in court by witnesses, particularly the evidence of Augustine Bangura, who is PW1, Eric Charlie William, an initiate of the Klymax club on the 13th July 2018, the evidence of PW4, who is D.P.C. 12057 Koroma B and also PW5, who is the government pathologist, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma.
He said the accused were charged with the offences of conspiracy to murder and murder contrary to law. He said the prosecution is required by law to prove all elements of offences charged to establish a case against the accused.
He said the prosecution must prove the element of murder and not the guilt of the accused. He referred the bench to section 120 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965, which states that the prosecution needs to provide sufficient evidence against an accused. He said defense counsels made references to Alvin Grader of 1981, but these provisions in which defense counsel rely has to do with guilt wherein they are not in court for that but to prove that the accused are the ones who unlawfully murdered the deceased.
“In this case it is unchallengeable and the prosecution has proved this piece of evidence to commit the accused to stand trial,” the prosecutor told the court.
He said the second element is that the killing is unlawful and also submits that this act was never dealt with in the submission of the defense and they never argued on that since the inception of the matter and the prosecution have proved that the killing of the deceased was unlawful and therefore they relied on the evidence of PW5 Dr. Simenon Owizz Koroma, who stated in court that the death was homicidal and that piece of evidence was never challenged by the defense, and he collaborated the evidence of PW3, one of the club members and initiators by the club.
He furthered that, in the evidence of PW3, during the initiation the second process was physical which entails crawling and rolling over, etc. He also said he was carried by someone on the back.
He said PW3, in his statement made to the police, also admitted that the initiative involves torture and flogging, and the deceased was among the initiators. He added that they were beaten with cables.
He also submitted that the death was unlawful, which involves torture. The medical examination report said the deceased died as a result of manual strangulation and this evidence was also unshaken throughout the trial.
He said the killing was done with malice afore thought, but the prosecution will submit that this is a trial matter for the High Court to determine and not the magistrate court, as they are not in court to prove the guilt of the accused but to prove sufficient evidence against them. He said the evidence is sufficient for the accused to be committed to the High Court for further trial.
He said the prosecution has proved that the deceased died within a year. The deceased was also initiated by the accused and others unknown on the 13th July 2018. He died on the 14th July 2018, which clearly proves that the deceased died within a day and a year.
He ended his submission by stating that the prosecution has provided the court with sufficient evidence for the accused to stand trial. The accused are facing two count of conspiracy to murder and murder, contrary to law.
Court details state that the accused, on the 14th July 2018 in Freetown, murdered Albert Madison Bio.
Magistrate Bangura adjourned the matter to the 31st January 2019.