February 10, 2021
By: James Kamara-Manneh
12 Jurors from different Ministry Department and Agency in the country were empaneled by the Court Clerk to serve as Judges of facts in the 5yrs old murder trial of Khadija Madinatu Sankoh (deceased) who was allegedly raped and murdered by Ibrahim Bah in complicity with his mother. The matter was brought before Justice Don Bosco Alieu of the Freetown High Court on the 8th February, 2021.
Before the trial commenced, State Prosecutor Joseph A.K Sesay Esq. however informed the jurors that the accused Mariama Sajor Barrie and Ibrahim Bah are both charged with conspiracy and murder.
The prosecutor explained that conspiracy in law is an agreement between two or more people to do an unlawful act by an unlawful means. He said to prove the offence of conspiracy, prosecution must convinced the jurors that the accused persons were in agreement at some point and that each must have done something in furtherance of the agreement.
He further notes that murder in law is when a normal person unlawful does something to another person intentional to kill the person and that the person died as a result of that injury within one year 1 day.
It is the duty of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt “and if they failed you (Jurors)must return a verdict of not guilty but at the end of the trial if you are sure that what we alleged is true then you return a verdict of guilty.
He provided a brief fact of the case stating that the deceased Khadija Madinatu Sankoh was alleged killed on 17 June 2020. It was also disclosed that prior to her demise, she was residing with the first and second accused.
Justice Don Bosco Alieu, whilst addressing the court, urged the Jurors not to go out of the evidence in court at the conclusion of the trial but to go according to the evidence led in court.
He stated clearly that the court is not a court of sympathy but a court of law and further urged them to keep an open mind and side with no one but the truth.
Justice Alieu Don Bosco further that if there is any doubt in the evidence, they should not hesitate to return a verdict of not guilty in favor of the accused persons. He assured the court and the jurors of transparent trial, but however warned the jurors not to bow to any powerful element in the society. He also warned the public not to interfere with the jurors.
The learned judge also cautioned both lawyers not to go to his office alone during the cause of the trial and entreated journalists to report the proceeding accordingly.
It was at this juncture, Abu Bakarr Saccoh (deceased father) said in his testimony said he knows first accused Mariama Barrie as the sister to her ex-wife Binta Barrie and also second accused who happens to be the son of the first accused. The witness said he is a staff of a communication company in USA as Manager.
He said on the 17 June 2020, he was at home in the USA when he received a telephone call from his aunty Isata Jabbie Kabbah that the deceased was sick and they have taking her to the hospital, within 10 minute later, he received another call from her that his daughter has died.
” I told my Aunty that further investigation need to be done in order to determine her cause of death but they refused on the grounds of religious reason.
“So I instructed my friend Emmanuel resident in Sierra Leone to file in a police report that my daughter’s death was suspicious which he did,” the witness said.
He also confirmed to the court that prior to the death of Khadija, at the time he left Sierra Leone, the deceased was staying with her mother at Smart Farm, but she the mother, later called him that the deceased had started having nightmare at their premises so I instruct her that they should move to my Aunty which she did.
The witness further testified that before her demise I spoke to her and I later learnt that Binta Barrie had travel to America and left the deceased in care of the first accused Mariama Sajor Barrie.
A-Z media will continue to bring you update as they proceeding unfolds.
