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A High Court judge of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone recently sentenced a man to 15-years in prison in the northern city of Makeni, after he pleaded guilty to assaulting and wounding his neighbor.
Amadu Fofanah was on Thursday, Oct. 7, sentenced by Bombali district resident judge Hon. Justice Unissa Kamara.
“I’m sentencing you to 15 years imprisonment,” Justice Kamara said.
Fofanah, the state said, on June 20, 2021, around an area in the Makeni municipality called Stocco where he resides, assaulted and wounded Sallieu Kalokoh, the complainant.
The state said Fofanah assaulted Kalokoh with a cutlass, inflicting several wounds in different parts of his body.
Kalokoh, a local farmer and Fofanah’s close friend neighbor, the state said, was working on his farm when Fofanah assaulted and wounded him.
“A case of an alleged assault and wounding was reported to the Mena Police Station in Makeni. Sallieu Kalokoh, complainant, alleges that he was assaulted and wounded by suspect, Amadu Fofanah, while working on his farm,” police records say.
TV-News24 reported that, police records indicated that Fofanah was arrested by law enforcement on the day of the reported incident – and taken to a local police station.
Fofanah was arraigned on two counts of wounding with intent, and wounding occasioning actual bodily harm.
Since his arrest in June for the crime, Fofanah, who’s in his 30s, was jailed at the local prison here in Makeni city – as the district Magistrate Court conducted preliminary investigations.
Rtd. Major Mustapha Brima Jah, presiding magistrate of the lower court, subsequently committed Fofanah to the Makeni regional High Court – after a probable cause hearing – in which he determined that there was enough evidence to proceed at trial on the two counts charges.
At the high court, when the charges were read to Fofanah, he pleaded guilty, and begged Judge Kamara to temper justice with mercy.
“My lord, I’m pleading for mercy. Please, forgive me,” Fofanah said.
Fofanah’s legal representative, lawyer Ibrahim Samba of Legal Aid Board Sierra Leone, also asked the judge to be lenient with his client in the sentencing phase.
“My lord, the man standing before you is a young man, and a first-time offender. Please, I’m pleading that you be lenient in passing your sentence,” Samba said.
But prosecutor Aruna Jalloh countered, and asked the judge to make sure Fofanah paid the price for the offense he committed.
Jalloh is State’s Counsel and Customary Law Officer in northern Sierra Leone.
After Kamara, the judge, sentenced Fofanah to 15 years imprisonment, TV-News24 witnessed as he was taken into the custody of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service – to begin serving his sentence at the Makeni prison yard.
