On Friday, Principal Magistrate Muhammad Krubally of the Banjul Magistrates Court declined to hear the treasonous charges preferred against the alleged seven coup plotters for lack of jurisdiction to hear such an offense.
The alleged seven coup plotters arraigned in court were Sanna Fadera, Gibril Darboe, Ebrima Sano, Ebrima Baldeh, Omar M. Colley, Bakary Njai, and Bara Touray, while Lamin Jadama is still at large.
The State leveled two counts against the seven accused: conspiracy to commit felony and treason.
When the first count (felony) was read to the accused, they all denied involvement.
Having heard from the accused persons, presiding Magistrate Krubally accords the accused the presumption of innocence until proven guilty as constitutionally guaranteed and entered a plea of not guilty for the accused. He said conspiracy to commit a felony is bailable.
“I now exercise my statutory judicial and reasonable discretion and admit all the seven accused herein bail in the sum of D100,000 each. In the same vein, each accused person must provide a Gambian surety who must deposit their valid and original ID Card or passport to the Registrar and provides correct contacts,” Principal Magistrate Krubally stated.
Meanwhile, on count 2 (treason), the court says it does not have the jurisdiction to hear and entertain treasonous offense and therefore orders the accused persons to be remanded to Mile 2 Central Prison pending the State Prosecution team to transfer the matter to the High Court.
