By: Audrey Raymonda John
The murder trial of Mohamed Jagitay resumed before Justice Adrian Fisher at High Court No.1, Siaka Stevens Street, Freetown. Jagitay stands charged with one count of murder, contrary to Section 1 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, as repealed and replaced by Section 1(a) of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 2022 (Act No. 6 of 2022).
According to the particulars of the offence, on 28th July 2023, in Freetown, the accused allegedly murdered Ibrahim Jagitay.
When the charge was read and explained, the accused did not take a plea.
State Prosecutor Musa Pious Sesay Jr. Esq. led the first prosecution witness, Mohamed Alpha Jagitay, who identified the deceased as his younger brother and the accused as a friend of the deceased.
In his testimony, the witness recalled that on 27th July 2023, the accused visited their workplace a bakery where both he and the deceased were working. The witness said he was at the flour storage area when the deceased and the accused approached him. The deceased handed him some money and informed him that he and the accused were going somewhere around 9 to 10 p.m. He said he later saw both men cross the bridge and enter a vehicle. That was the last time he saw his brother alive, he concluded.
The second prosecution witness, also named Mohamed Alpha Jagitay, a petty trader, testified that the accused is his elder brother’s son and the deceased was his elder sister’s son. He recalled being at his Calaba Town residence on the same night, 27th July 2023, when he received a call around 8 to 9 p.m. that the deceased had not returned home after going out with the accused.
Upon receiving this information, he called his sister and asked about the accused’s whereabouts. She told him the accused was at home. He went there, met the accused, and asked about the deceased. The accused reportedly said that they had gone to a bar and parted ways at around 4 a.m.
The witness said he immediately took the accused to the Calaba Town Police Station, where police officers confiscated the accused’s mobile phone and told him to search for the missing person.
Later, at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, the witness said his wife showed him a picture circulating on social media of the deceased lying dead. He took the image to the police station, where officers confirmed that the body had been found on Friday morning and taken to the hospital.
At the hospital, he identified the deceased and observed multiple stab wounds on the body. A postmortem examination was later conducted, after which the body was buried. He also noted that the accused had a wound on his hand, which the accused claimed was from a motorcycle accident. The accused told him the wound had been treated by a dispenser.
The witness said he later spoke with the dispenser and confirmed the wound treatment. He also mentioned that the body of the deceased was found on land owned by the accused’s father, which was reportedly under dispute at the time.
The witness was cross-examined by Muctarr Rashid Esq.
Justice Fisher refused bail and remanded the accused at the Male Correctional Centre in Freetown. The matter was adjourned to 27th June 2025.