By Janet A Sesay
Awareness Times Publisher and former Minister, Dr Sylvia Blyden who made her first appearance in court, last Friday, embarked on self-defence in respect of the charges brought against her by the state.
The self-defence stance adopted by the former Minister means she can represent herself in court without aid of a counsel.
Another accused person, Hussain Muckson, was also similarly charged with an offence of perverting the course of justice, but he was represented by Melron Nicol Wilson and team.
Counsel Adrian Fisher is prosecuting on behalf of the state.
In a court presided over by Magistrate Hannah Bonnie of Pa Demba Road Court in Freetown, the accused, Dr Blyden is answering to nine-count charges of seditious and defamatory libel, publication of false news, perverting the course of justice among others.
The accused, Sylvia was picked up from her residence at Cookle Bay; West of Freetown following an alleged publication via her Facebook page about the sanitary condition of a cell Paolo Conteh was detained.
The social media publication, according to the charge sheet, claimed that Paolo Conteh was forced to urinate, defecate in a bucket and sleep in a cell with little ventilation.
“The windows are placed so high that fresh air cannot easily remove the stench from the cell,” the alleged facebook publication says.
Alfred Paolo Conteh is also a former minister of defence in the past government of former President Koroma.
Mr Conteh too is answering to charges of treason and other related offences. He is in custody at the Pa Demba Road Central Correctional Facility where he has spent over a month.
The two accused persons, Dr Sylvia Blyden and Hussain Muckson denied all charges read to them by the court.
Considering the nature of offence, Counsel Wilson made an application for bail on behalf of the second accused, Hussain.
He told the court that that the accused had competent and reliable persons to stand as sureties on behalf of the accused.
While responding to a sworn affidavit, Dr. Sylvia Blyden similarly made bail application pursuant to section 79 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965 while responding to a sworn affidavit.
The affidavit indicates that bail should not be granted to the two accused persons since the first accused Dr. Blyden refused to surrender her passport to the police.
In her effort to secure bail, Dr Blyden explained about her poor health status to the court.
“I am unwell since the time I was arrested,” Dr Blyden told the court.
To prove her claim, Sylvia Blyden furnished the court with her medical papers from Connaught Government Hospital in Freetown and those from a hospital in the United Kingdom.
She said there were many points stated in the affidavit that were not true making specific reference to paragraphs 5(7) of the affidavit especially the part that indicated that she was granted bail at the Criminal Investigation Department.
She also told the court that reasonable effort for bail made by her counsel, Ambassador Amadu Koroma was futile.
“When I fell sick for twenty-two days, coughing and spitting blood at the cell, I was still refused bail,” she said.
She also told the court that she was deprived of her hand bag containing her passport and other properties upon request.
“The police said they had nothing for me even my facemask, jewelries and money,” Dr Blyden told the court.
She said she was highly suspicious of a female police officer, Zainab who refused to submit her passport which was inside her hand bag that she handed over to them.
“I have never been hostile with the police since the inception of the investigation, and I have been cooperating with them although I was locked up in solitary isolation without food and water for two days,” Dr Blyden narrated her ordeal.
She further told the court that even when the police went for a second search at her residence, she opted to go with them alongside her counsel. The police, she went on, did not seem pleased with her statement and counsel’s entry into the office of Head Of CID, and used invectives on him.
Her counsel, she said, wept and later assured her of getting another lawyer to represent her.
“From that point, I was taken to another cell and the police went to my house with some members of the press without informing me and my counsel and damaged my house,” she explained to the court.
She ended by placing emphasis on her application for bail as, she said, she would not pose a flight risk.
Dr Sylvia Blyden was cross-examined by counsel, Adrian Fisher.
In her response, Dr Blyden told the court that she could not recall the exact date the police arrested her.
“All what I knew, I woke up at noon and saw police officers searching my house for the first time,” she said.
After the search, Dr Blyden went on; she was asked by the police officers to follow them to the Criminal Investigation Department for questioning.
Having noted down submissions of the accused Dr Sylvia Blyden and Counsel Adrian Fisher, Magistrate Hannah Bonnie promised to look into the bail application made by the defence counsel for the second accused and the information given by the first accused, Dr Sylvia Blyden.
“Both accused persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty although the offence is a very serious one,” Magistrate Bonnie said.
The accused persons remanded at the Correctional Center, and the matter adjourned to 28th May.
The particulars indicated that the accused, on 20th October 2018, in the Freetown Judicial district, in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone, published through social media, a defamatory matter that ‘Sierra Leone President, Bio is caught in self-created ethnic vortex but cannot escape because it was by whipping up untrue sentiment.’
The police charge sheet further stated that on 23rd April, 2020, Dr Sylvia Blyden made a publication that is seditious and defamatory.
The particulars also indicated that Hussain Muckson Sesay on 2nd May 2020, in Freetown, with intent to pervert the course of justice, did an act to publish a photograph on whatSapp social media group without lawful authority.
Sylvia Blyden on self Defence
