The Banjul Magistrates’ Court, presided over by Magistrate Kayode, yesterday refused the application by the defence counsel Lamin Jobarteh following a ruling delivered on the said application.

Lawyer Lamin Jorbarteh earlier on made an application for the court to order the prosecution to provide them with all the information necessary to the case to enable them prepare their defence. The application was objected to by the prosecution on the grounds that those are the documents the prosecution intends to use against the accused.

Superintendent Badjie further argued that the defence application is meant to disarm the prosecution.

Defence counsel, Lamin Jobarteh later applied for an adjournment of the case, as they wish to appeal against the ruling which to him is a denial of their constitutional rights. He said the application for an adjournment is to enable the defence to file an appeal and for a stay of proceedings at the High Court. He also applied for a copy of the ruling to be made available to them.

In response, police prosecutor Superintendent Badjie, said there is no application for a stay of proceedings as at now at the High Court. He said the defence counsel only informed the court of their intention to appeal against the Magistrates’ Court ruling. He added that he had a witness in court and he is prepared to proceed with his witness. But the defence counsel application for an adjournment was ultimately granted.

It will be recalled that the accused, Musa Suso, is standing trial on four counts all relating to giving false information to public officers contrary to section 114(a) of the criminal code cap 10 volume III Laws of The Gambia 1990.

The case was at that juncture adjourned to 19th September 2008.

The application for bail condition review concerning Manlafi Sanyang was on Wednesday rejected by the Banjul Magistrates Court. The accused Manlafi Sanyang, former government vehicles controller at State House, had earlier on applied to the court for a review of the bailed condition granted to him as he is unable to fulfill the condition.

Delivering ruling on the application Magistrate Kayode stated that the submission of the defense counsel failed to state how it became impossible to get a Permanent Secretary as surety for the accused person. He held that in a situation where there would be more than 10 Permanent Secretaries serving in the civil service of the Gambia at any given time, how then it was impossible to get a Permanent Secretary. He said the amount of bail shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstance of the case and shall not be excessive.

He wondered aloud as to who is better placed to secure the presence of the accused in court if not a senior civil servant, given the circumstance of the present case where the charge before the court is one in which a government property is alleged to have been stolen.

It could recalled that the accused, Manlafi Sanyang, has been standing trial for allegedly stealing a pick-up vehicle with registration no. BJL 4591B, being the property of the Gambia government.

He was since then granted court bail in the sum of D200,000.00, with a surety in the rank of a Permanent Secretary.

Case continued today.

The new generic top-level domain, ".asia", met with an Internet landrush following the February 20 launch of the Asia-Pacific domain. Applications have not only come from Asian countries, but also from Europe and North America. Asia accounted for 35% of all applications with Europe and North America taking 40% and 24% respectively.

According to the DotAsia Organization, global application on launch were approximately 266,700. Currently Dotalliance Inc. & EuroDNS S.A. are the top two registrars.

We [DotAsia Organization] have reserved several applications for notable small-business companies in the previous sunrise period before this Landrush. This (reservation) take a good effect and several registered organizations all got their wanted websites. With near 300,000 applications anticipated for the ".asia" domain, it demonstrated a strong demand for ".Asia".

With the ".asia" domain having become notable, many more applications are expected before the closing date of March 12.

The managing director of Carnegie Minerals the Gambia, yesterday appeared before presiding Judge Na Ceesay Sallah-Wadda at the Banjul High Court for review of his bail condition.

Lawyer Menneh, counsel for the accused person, informed the court of his intention to apply for review of the bail conditions of his client.

According to Lawyer Menneh his client was unable to meet the condition of bail granted and therefore would urge the court to reduce the conditions so as to enable  him to meet the required conditions. “I urge the court’s indulgence to reduce the bail condition to $100,000 by way of deposits to the Registrar of High Court,” he said.

Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Emmanuel Fagbenle did not object to the defence counsel’s application, noting that the issue of reviewing the bail condition touches on the due proceedures. He therefore urged the defence counsel to file a formal application to the court for review of the bail conditions.

The defence counsel filed a formal application to that effect, after the court stood down to enable him to make the formal application.

The presiding judge Na Ceesay Sallah-Wadda adjourned the case to Monday 25th February for ruling on the bail application.

The managing director had appeared before the court last Friday, when the bail condition was set after he had been charged on fourt counts of mineral offences. He is facing three counts of economic crime  charges, all contrary to Economic Crime Decree No. 16 and one count of theft contrary to Section 252 of the Criminal Code Laws of The Gambia.