December 8, 2021
By: Aruna Kamara (BO)
The Secretary General of the consortium of Civil Society in Bo District, Momoh Kamara has claimed that his rights were violated by Magistrate Jusu presiding over cases at Court No.1 along Baima Road in Bo by unlawfully detaining him.
A-Z newspaper learnt that the civil society activist was in court on court monitoring last week when the magistrate shouted at him and asked him to occupy the seats of the accused persons in court.
According to the civil society activists, he has written a letter to the Magistrate demanding to know why he was detained in court.
The Letter reads: “I am writing to request for an enquiring for the reason (s) of detention or bench warrant imposed by you few weeks ago at your court.
You may agree with me that, on the 28th of December, 2021, you detained me of which I have no knowledge about the reason of the detention or bench warrant or punishment.
On that day, I went to your court to monitor the proceedings about a matter in your court. Upon entry to get access to the seat after your break, you called me with a greatest surprise to sit on the bench of the prisoners with a word altered by you saying you will send me to prison.
As a Human right/Civil society activist, I may want to know why the word was altered and why the detention.
Sir, Section 8 of the Courts Act, 1965 provides that the Magistrate’s Court shall have the jurisdiction to do all lawful acts necessary to enquire into and dispose of or to hear and determine all civil and criminal matters arising within the district, area or place for which it is established or transferred to it by the High Court.
In view of the above, your reason(s) stated after reading this request will help me, the Civil Society and the people of Sierra Leone to adhere to rules and regulations with regards to your reason(s) stated for history not to repeat it-self again.’’
However, effort was made to contact the magistrate but proved futile but those who were in court on that fateful day said that ‘’ the magistrate never new that the Civil society activists was in court for court monitoring as he could not make known his presence to Magistrate Jusu.