Baba Jobe Held Under Terrorism Act

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
January 2, 2004
Posted to the web January 5, 2004
Banjul
The prolonged detention of Honourable Baba Jobe is being reportedly justified,
by the Gambian authorities, using the Terrorism Act, ratified late last year by
the same National Assembly where he is still the majority leader. This also
reportedly applies to the protracted detention of his associates who were also
arrested on Saturday.
Up to press time Wednesday, they were still detained in various police stations
across the country, linked to terrorism activities in Libya over the past three
years, The Independent can reveal.
According to the Terrorism Act of 2002, offenses relating to terrorism among
others include, terrorism meetings, supporting terrorism, harbouring
terrorists, financing terrorism and also using or possessing property for the
purpose of terrorism. The Terrorism Act also allows for the detention of a
suspect for only 36 hours while the directive to do so must be issued by a
senior police officer. According to the same act, terrorism can assume an
individual or organizational nature.
As it becomes clear under what pretext Honourable Jobe continues to be held, it
is however, not clear under which provision of the act he may be charged.
According to intelligence sources, Honourable Jobe may be charged anew under
the Act, which may be heard in the Gambian courts today as one in his team of
defense lawyers successfully filed for his unconditional release on Wednesday,
which the police refused to accept on the basis that he was being held under
the Terrorism Act and that the summon seeking his release was belatedly filed
on Wednesday as the courts went into a short recess for the New Year.
According to sources Mai Fatty's challenge of Baba Jobe's "unconstitutional"
detention had got off to a promising start when Justice Wallace Grante of the
High Court entertained the logic of his argument, saying that it was more than
72-hours since his client was detained and rendered incommunicado. Justice
Grante had reportedly upheld Lawyer Fatty's argument, to the effect that
Honourable Jobe's released was granted. However, a new twist reportedly emerged
when the police refused to obey the order from Justice Grante to release the
embattled politician, who already faces a string of charges pertaining to
economic crimes against the state. Reports suggested that the police were
waiting for an order from the Inspector General of Police to that effect, which
never came.
In corroboration of this assertion, one of Honourable Jobe's lawyers also told
The Independent late Wednesday that an "originating summon" and an "emergency
process" were filed to the effect that an order was granted by Grante for the
unconditional release of his client and the other four detainees arrested with
him on Saturday. According to Mai Fatty, the IGP and the Attorney General were
served such notifications as the court order was granted. An Exparte
application according to Lawyer Fatty was filed, securing Jobe's release.
However, Police Chief Landing (13) Badjie has dismissed suggestions that the
case against Jobe's "unconstitutional' detention was heard at the High Court on
Wednesday. He told The Independent that although a summon and an affidavit from
the courts were received by the police at 15:50 pm (ten minutes to four), the
case over the unconstitutionality of Baba Jobe's protracted detention was never
heard by the High Court. "As far as I know as the Inspector General of Police,
I never saw or heard about any court order to the effect of Mr. Jobe's release.
I am effectively saying that this information about the case being heard is not
true," the police chief maintained.
News that the Majority leader is being held in accordance with the Terrorism
Act has partially vindicated theories linking his arrest with the weekend
shooting of lawyer Ousman Sillah, who is recovering from head and shoulder
wounds at a hospital in Dakar. Sources say Honourable Jobe's associates were
reportedly trained in Libya in recent years and had since returned to The
Gambia to lead lives underlined by their unquestionable loyalty to him. Since
2001 Baba Jobe has been under a United Nations travel ban for alleged
gunrunning and diamond smuggling, which his lawyers had unsuccessfully tried to
overturn earlier this year.

   

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