*12 Witnesses Testify
*3 Non-existing Witness
By Janet A Sesay
After calling 16 witnesses including the police Exhibit Clerk, Counsels for the prosecution in the trial of Alfred Paolo Conteh have closed their case yesterday.
Several exhibits have been tendered in evidence in Support of the prosecution’s case.
It is now the defence’s turn to make a no-case submission that would hopefully see the accused persons walk as free men.
The first accused Alfred Paolo Conteh, a former Minister of Defence, Sahr Anthony Sinnah and Prince George Hughes, second and third accused persons respectively, employees of the Commission for Small Arms are standing trial for treason-related offences.
The country’s Attorney-General (AG), Dr Priscillia Schwartz and other counsels prosecute for the state while two former AG’s, Dr Abdulai O. Conteh and Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara as well as other counsels represent the accused persons.
Justice Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens of High Court of Sierra Leone presides over the matter.
Before closing their case, one of the state counsels, Adrian Fisher informed the court that three more witnesses would have testified had it not been the exigency of time.
“The Prosecution has the names of three witnesses at the back of the indictment who are supposed to testify in court but they don’t want to waste the court’s time,” Counsel Fisher told the court.
He said what the witnesses were about to testify had been said in court, and that they would repeat the same testimonies.
Owing to the need to speed up the matter, Counsel Fisher urged the court to treat them as non-existing witnesses.
Responding to Fisher’s submission, the lead defence counsel, Dr Conteh told the court the defence did not object to the prosecution’s application, but the witnesses should be brought to court since their names were at the back of the indictment.
“The defence will know what to do when the witnesses are brought forward regarding whether we cross-examine or not,” Dr Conteh submitted.
Having heard submissions from the two sides, Justice Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens ruled that the non-existing witnesses should be brought to court.
After an adjournment of one hour, the prosecution brought the non-existing witnesses in compliance with the judge’s ruling.
The three non-existing witnesses were called to the witness box one at a time and stating their names and ranks in the police force.
The prosecutor led none of the three witnesses in evidence, and none were cross-examined by the defence.
State Prosecutor, Adrian Fisher submitted that the 136 proceedings be part of the records, and Justice Stevens replied that it had been part of the records since the matter was transferred to the high court.
Section 136 is a provision in the Criminal procedure Act of 1965 which Provides that an indictment shall not be filed without previous committal.
In this case, the 136 proceedings refers to the proceedings on preliminary investigation which took place in the magistrate court.
Justice Stevens then told the defence team that the prosecution had closed their case by calling witnesses and tendering exhibits.
The learned Judge reminded the court of the Criminal Procedure Act which, he said, was the law dealing with criminal proceedings. He also cited section 194 of the said Act which states that when prosecution closes their case especially when the accused has legal representation, the accused are liable to be put on selections.
Defence counsels for the first and second accused persons, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara and Rowland Wright informed the court that they would submit the no-case submission before the accused persons are put on selection.
However, defence counsel for the third accused, Amadu Koroma said he relied on the statements the accused made to the police, the summary made by the court as well as the address he would make on behalf of the third accused.
One of the defence counsels Joseph Kamara also submitted that they needed consultations with their witnesses list to know who will have to testify on behalf of their clients.
He said, in their no-case submission, they would have to make direct references to the exhibits which they wanted the court to give them access to.
The Attorney General, Justice Priscilla Schwartz suggested that the defence made their submission in a written form in order to expedite the matter.
Madam Schwartz also submit that the prosecution should furnish them with copies of the no-case submission on Thursday.
Counsel Kamara assured the court that they would do a written submission and they would furnish the prosecution with the copy on Friday instead of Thursday.
“We will give copies to the prosecution on Friday and not on Thursday as we will go through it during the weekends,” he said.
The defence hopes to submit no-case submission document on Monday, and they expect that the prosecution would reply on the same day or the next day.
Madam Priscilla however urged the prosecution to serve them on Thursday for the matter to be sped up.
The matter comes up on 15th June.