By Joseph Dumbuya
On Friday, 11 September 2020, Legal Aid Counsels were on the road to the other district headquarter towns where the sessions were meant to start after completion of a two-week long Criminal Session in Port Loko and Pujehun.
Legal Aid Counsels, Mohamed Korie and Ibrahim Samba, who represented all the 49 cases heard in the Port Loko Special Criminal Session, left for Kabala where the session started on Tuesday, 15 September 2020. While Counsel Sei Kabba Coomber who represented the cases in the Pujehun Session arrived in Moyamba on Sunday, September 13 where the session started on Monday, 14 September 2020.
Counsels Mohamed Korie and Ibrahim Samba represented the 49 cases heard in the Port Loko session presided over by Justice S. O. Taylor. Six of the cases were acquitted and discharged, 16 were sentenced to various prison terms and 27 cases were adjourned.
While Legal Aid Counsel, Sei Kabbah Coomber represented 17 accused persons in the Pujehun Session presided over by Justice Ganda. These include 6 convicted of sexual penetration and sent to prison terms ranging from 7 to 15 years; two of those charged with sexual penetration were acquitted and discharged; one accused was convicted of sexual touching and sentenced to four years imprisonment; two were convicted of house breaking and larceny and sentenced to 8 years and ten years imprisonment respectively and one was convicted of store breaking and larceny and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment.
The session in Kailahun which was presided over by Justice Simeon Alieu was concluded on Monday, September 14. Legal Aid Counsels Ibrahim Tholley and Patrick Kamara provided legal representation to all 72 cases heard in that session comprising 40 completed cases, 6 acquitted and discharged cases, 12 discharged cases and 14 incomplete cases.
Meanwhile Counsels Mohamed Korie and Ibrahim Samba arrived in Kabala on Sunday, 13 September 2020 for the Special Criminal Session in that part of the country which started on September 15. Both Counsels spent Monday, September 14 paying a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of Sengbah Chiefdom, Alie Balasama Marah III. They also visited the Police Station and the Correctional center in Kabala where they met with officers and spoke with suspects and inmates respectively.
