Magistrate Hannah Bonnie of the Freetown Magistrate Court No. 1, on Friday 12 June 2020, has withdrawn for ruling the file in a case in which Dr. Sylvia Blyden and one Hussein Mukson Sesay were being investigated for seditious libel, defamatory libel, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and for doing acts intended to pervert the course of justice contrary to law.
During the last hearing Dr. Blyden, unsuccessfully applied for the charge of defamatory libel levied against her to be dropped on the basis that the particulars of that offence in the police charge sheet stated that she had made the alleged defamatory post sometimes in October 2018, and that the said post had existed for more than twenty one months, and was therefore prosecution on that charge ought to be barred in accordance with Section 34 of the Public Order Act No. 32 of 1965 which states that no person can be charged with the offence of defamatory libel having committed the offence for a period of six months. State prosecutor Y.I. Sesay objected to her application and said the application had been inappropriate. Lawyer Sesay contended that such an application ought to have been made when she was being arraigned. “We have taken one witness. Besides, in a preliminary investigation, if you think the charges are erroneous or otherwise, there is an opportunity for a no case submission,” he added.
Sesay described Dr. Blyden’s application as a ploy to waste the Court’s time, and urged Magistrate Bonnie to discountenance it.
At that point of the proceedings the Magistrate withdrew the case file for ruling and adjourned the matter to the 17th June 2020.
A little earlier during the same proceedings Dr. Blyden had conducted further cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, Superintendent M.K. Allieu, during which she expressed doubts as to whether her social media posts about President Bio had been a breach of national security. She was also curious to know whether President Bio who is alleged to have been defamed did complain to the police that he had been defamed.
Superintendent Allieu responded that he did not take any statement from the President in respect of the matter, asserting that “Talking to the President is irrelevant. The President does not need to complain before we take action on something which we think is defamatory.”
Melron Nicole Wilson Esq, defense counsel for the second accused, Hussein Mukson Sesay, also applied for his client’s laptop computer which had been seized by the police to be given back to his client.
He canvassed his plea on section 59 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Act No. 32 of 1965. Lawyer Wilson intimated the Court that his client is a student of Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, and had his lecture notes in the said computer.
However, Magistrate Bonnie noted that the application came too early. She said, she could not order for the return of the laptop to Sesay because it was not before the Court, and was still being used as evidence by the police who had not tendered it in court.
By Isabella Cassell
15/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7845