The Appeal Court of Sierra Leone, has on Monday, 9th February, 2023 ruled in favour of Dr. Richard Konteh in a lawsuit he filed against the Commission of Inquiries (COI) of 2018 over a decision made against him by the Commission last year.

After months of court appearances in the Court of Appeal in the main Law Court Building of Pademba Road in Freetown and before Justice Adrian Fisher, who read his verdict in the matter between the former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Richard Konteh (Plaintiff) Vs The Government of Sierra Leone (Defendants), and declared the plaintiff exonerated of all criminal charges levied against him.

Konteh was accused and found guilty of corruption by the commission of Inquiry, which was established in 2018 by President Maada Bio’s SLPP government, to investigate the activities of the former government officials that served under Ernest Bai Koroma’s APC administration.

In his ruling, Justice Adrian Fisher said that, there were mistakes of facts made by the COI in the sole commissioner’s analyses in the matter before his Court, adding that the Court of Appeal indeed has the ‘mandate’ to ‘look’ into matter, as well as the powers to ‘determine the errors in the COI’s judgement’ against the then Defendant.

Justice Andrian Fisher, delivering his ruling, disclosed that he had thoroughly examined the evidence in the matter, and stated that the “sole commissioner’s decisions were unsatisfactory and unjustifiable.”

 



(Ultram)