By Sainey Darboe, Editor-in-chief:
High court judge, Justice Amina-Saho Ceesay, has declared she won’t recuse herself from the case against Golden Lead company, while threatening not to accord traction to the case on her docket until Gunjuronline removes publication of her arrest and prosecution for an alleged theft with an accompanying written apology.
The medium reported in 2018 that the presiding judge, Amina Saho-Ceesay, has a record of arrest and prosecution for alleged corruption and her husband was best friends with defense lawyer for Golden Lead Lamin S Camara, which raises conflict of interest issues.
According to reliable sources who are in the know of her apoplectic fury about the publication which she vented in a meeting with attorneys in her chambers, she also threatens to refer Gunjuronline to AG chambers for prosecution if they don’t offer a written apology and remove the articles from its website.
Contacted for comment on the brewing saga, Gunjuronline boss Lamin Jammeh riposted:
“Gunjuronline is more interested in giving a voice to the voiceless, and reporting on human rights and governance deficits in The Gambia than giving an alleged corrupt and conflicted judge the dignity of a reply. We must say we are highly entertained by news of her demands, but the flirting with career suicide is a new play we are still trying to figure out. What she is doing clearly constitutes obstruction of justice and abuse of power as a judge.
We have been apprised of the threat to push for our prosecution on trumped-up charges of sub-judice because the judge is unhappy with Gunjur Online reporting on her previous arrest and prosecution for an alleged theft and asked her to recuse herself from the Golden Lead case for a fair and speedier trial. We stand ready to supply a rigorous defense. And thanks to a benevolent arrangement of fortunes, we have an impressive array of local and international lawyers ready to leap to our defense with vim and vigor”.