You don’t know anything about the rule of law- Lawyer Janneh

A doyen of the Gambian bar, Surahata Janneh on Monday put it to the Sherriff of the High Court “You don’t know anything about the rule of law” during cross- examination in the trial of Moses Richards.
Joseph Agbor Effim, the Sheriff at the High Court in Banjul, who  is the state’s no 1 witness in the sedition case of Moses Richards however told the court that he is not an expert in the rule of law but knows something about the rule of law before Magistrate Alagba of the Banjul Magistrate Court.
Richards, a former High Court Judge – now private lawyer -is facing two criminal charges – giving false information and sedition – at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.
He is alleged to have lied to the Sheriff of The Gambia that president of the republic ordered a stay of execution of a writ of possession in a civil suit; thus gave false information to a public servant and brought contempt into the person of the president of the republic
Richards however denied any wrong-doing
Mr Janneh also put it to the witness that nobody is above the law and the accused was not referring to president but the Office of the President in executing his client’s instructions but the witness however maintained that was how he comprehended it.
Janneh challenged that the accused person has never given any false information to anybody and that he was only doing what was expected of him as a legal practitioner by implementing his client’s instructions.
The witness said he copied the document to the Chief Justice as the Sherriff of the High court and a head of the judiciary system and not under the supervision of the Chief Justice.
He further said that the former Chief Justice stopped the bailiff from executing the judgment when the defense asked him what stopped them from executing the judgment since 2007.
The witness further accused Lawyer Ousainou Darboe by saying: “When I was summoned by the Chief Justice in his office, I found lawyer Ousainou Darboe claiming that I refused to execute his client’s judgment because they are an opposition party.”
Trial continues March 7