Sierra Leone: Murder Trial: Witness testifies seeing accused holding two Knives

Mohamed Musa Sesay, the brother of Alie Sesay (deceased), has in a case of Murder testified that when he had come out to find out what was amiss, after having heard her mother cried out for help, he saw the accused holding two knives at the time of the crime.

The junior brother of the victim on Wednesday September 30,  2020, testified before Magistrate Hannah Bonnie at the Freetown Magistrate Court No. 1 that, the accused Mohamed Sesay, stabbed and killed the victim Alie Sesay at Mountain Cut on August 11, 2020 with a knife.

 The accused stands charged on one count of murder contrary to law.

When he took to the witness stand, Mohamed Musa Sesay, a pupil of the Government Rokel Secondary School, recalled that on the 11th of August 2020, while he was studying inside a tailor shop, he rushed out of the shop to enquire what was amiss, and “to his greatest surprise, I saw the accused holding two knives”.

He further testified that he also heard him saying, “I promised I was going to kill you, and I am going to do that in front of your mother.”

 “Before long, the accused stabbed the deceased [Alie Sesay] on his forehead,” the witness revealed.

Sesay added that his mother continued shouting for help, but no one, including himself, could come to the victim’s aid for fear of being stabbed. “My elder brother (deceased) attempted to escape, but the accused chased him and stabbed him in several parts of his body,” he said.

He continued that the accused, before leaving the scene told their mother that he was now satisfied that he had killed the deceased, and asked the mother to have mercy upon him.

A few minutes later, Sesay said he and a group of youths took the deceased to the Satellite Hospital, but were referred to the Connaught Hospital where he was being given medication.

According to the witness, Police later showed up at the scene, after the matter had been reported in respect of the murder. “They asked if I were a brother to the deceased, and I responded that I was. They took me to the Eastern Police Station for statement, and upon our return to the hospital, the deceased was pronounced dead,” he further explained.

The accused was not represented by a lawyer and did not cross-examine the witness when he was asked to do so.

Magistrate Hannah Bonnie adjourned the matter to October 7, 2020.

By Isabella Cassel

2/10/2020. ISSUE NO: 7922