May 24, 2016 By Hassan Gbessay Koroma
A special criminal session to clear backlog criminal cases committed to the High Court in Sefadu, Kono, was last week held in the diamond rich eastern district.
Presided over by the Hon. Justice Allan B. Halloway (Judge of the Appeal Court), the special circuit court heard 60 cases, determining 45, and reserved two judgments.
They unprecedented determination of criminal cases within a short period, included four murder cases, with two such cases securing convictions upon return of guilty verdicts by the jury.
Two accused persons charged with murder were acquitted, albeit convicted for manslaughter: in The State vs Sia Kaimondo, the accused married one Mohamed Kargbo in 1994 and had five children with him before their marriage collapsed in 2011. The husband reportedly drove the accused and her children out of the house because of another wife, but continued to provoke the accused until she stabbed him on 1 October, 2013. She was however sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, one-third of which was suspended.
In The State vs Alhaji Mohamed Allieu Jalloh, the accused allegedly killed his girlfriend and their two-year-boy after he caught her sleeping with another man in their bedroom. He was convicted of manslaughter for the death of the girlfriend and murder of the boy. He was given 10 years for manslaughter and to death for killing the toddler.
Also, in The State vs Osman Gbla, the accused was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his employer and making away with his phone and other items.
One murder accused was acquitted and discharged on a successful plea of self defence. In the said case, Theresa Finoh, 16, was arraigned for murder after she stabbed her boyfriend, Sahr Gborie, 24, to death. According to court records, the deceased physically grabbed her around her neck, and while acting in self defence stabbed him to death.
The cases were prosecuted by Aiah Simeon Allieu, Esq., Principal State Counsel, and Ms Umu Sumaray, Senior State Counsel, while Musa Mewa Esq. was the defence counsel.