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Magistrate Abdul Carew of The Judiciary of Sierra Leone has denied a pregnant woman bail Friday, at the Kenema Courtroom No.1, court proceedings show.
TV-News24 reports that Carew didn’t also grant bail to two other male criminal defendants. The three – Massi Sylla, the pregnant woman, and Amadu Adama and Francois Kousin – are reportedly sick and need medical attention, according to one of their defense lawyers.
Lead defense lawyer Maada Sheku Momoh Koroma, tells Carew during bail motion, the defense team worries about the well-being of the accused persons while in prison.
“My lord, I’m asking for your kind consideration to grant the 13th, 28th and 34th accused persons bail. My lord, the 13th is pregnant, and is complaining of not getting basic medical services in there. The 28th and 34th are severely sick, and have not been treated,” Koroma said.
Koroma didn’t say the length of the woman’s pregnancy. The defense lawyer said there’re so many things he’s been told about the welfare of the defendants at the prison yard. But, he says, he won’t disclose that in open court.
“There are so many issues which I can’t disclose here, my lord. These are foreigners, and it will be sad if we just wake up and hear someone in there has died because of poor medical attention,” Koroma said. He also didn’t describe any of the illnesses his clients reportedly had.
Magistrate Carew, in open court, inquired from the Sierra Leone Correctional Service prison officers in Kenema, and asked about the defendants welfare at the prison yard.
“We have a nurse and a doctor who takes care of them. For those who are pregnant, the nurse checks them frequently, and they are given two [loaves] of bread, instead of one in the morning. And Le100,000 is given to them each, at the end of every month. The males also have their doctor who checks them,” Josephine Morie, one of the prison officers in the courtroom, said.
Carew, though he denied the defendants bail, he however ordered prison officers to give the three special medical care. “Make sure special medical treatment is given to them, and their welfare be properly looked into,” the magistrate said.
Sylla was the second woman in this criminal matter – with reportedly extenuating circumstances – to have requested bail on that basis. The other, Miatta Lansana, a Sierra Leone national, was breastfeeding her infant child (boy), while held in jail. She, and others, were initially denied bail requests – but hers was later granted. But only for it to be revoked few days later – after she appeared late for a scheduled hearing – and was sent back to jail by the same magistrate.
Lansana had told the court that she was at the hospital seeking medical treatment for her infant child. Lansana’s surety had also informed the court of her whereabouts. But when she didn’t appear until after Carew had concluded proceedings – but still in the courtroom – he revoked her bail. Though she pleaded then with the magistrate, Carew didn’t respond to her – thus, she spent that weekend in jail. Her surety was also jailed for not producing Lansana on time, the magistrate had said then.
She was then granted a second bail – before eventually changing her initial plea of not guilty of unlawful assembly, to guilty, and fined Le250,000 ($24) in local currency. And then discharged last week.
These three, though, said to be ill by the defense lawyer, are among 53 foreign nationals charged with four criminal counts – unlawful assembly, illegal entry, unlawful entry, and failing to register with the immigration department.
They were part of an earlier group of 63 – with the remaining being Sierra Leone nationals. The Sierra Leoneans were facing one count charge of unlawful assembly – and have all now been discharged, after changing their not guilty pleas, to guilty, and fined the same amount as Lansana.
The foreign nationals, though, from various West African countries, maintained their initial not guilty pleas to all of the charges – and are still on trial, denied several motions for bail, and being held at the Kenema prison yard.
