The government’s attempts to subvert justice in the Harry Yansaneh beating death has clearly demonstrated that Sierra Leoneans still have a long way to go to boast of a nation where justice and the Rule of Law hold domain. It is very disappointing and frustrating not only for the citizens of the country but stakeholders that nothing done and said have changed our politicians one bit. They have been corrupt from Day One and their plight is just worsening.
HARRY YANSANEH’S CORPSE
No less a man than the highly-respected and credible Magistrate Adrian Fisher has publicly accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Frederick Carew , of misleading the public. Fisher last week decided not to take things lying down and launched a vitriolic onslaught on the Attorney General who said he was not prosecuting the alleged killers of the late journalist, Harry Yansaneh, because Fisher did not provide evidence and there were insufficient grounds to prosecute those his inquest found culpable for beating Yansaneh to death.
WOMEN DEMONSTRATING FOR KILLERS TO BE PROSECUTED
The Attorney General said : “Mr. Fisher did not follow the Rules laid down in law that is Cap 9 of the laws of Sierra Leone 1960 , more especially Section 25 of the said Act… As a result of the non-compliance of the provisions of Cap 9 it was difficult…to institute legal proceedings..” The Attorney General complained that his office has still not received any records of evidence from the inquest and was therefore obliged to turn back to the records of evidence contained in the Police file, which he said he used, plus the medical report of the causes of Yansaneh’s death. The Attorney General concluded : It is clear therefore that there is no nexus between what happened on the date of the alleged incident and the death of the late Yansaneh “
HARRY YANSANEH’S COFFIN
Nobody needs to be told that not only the Attorney General is misleading the nation and the world. with these unbelievable provisions .. Fisher’s inquest proved that there was a causal link between the beating the poor journalist received from SLPP Parliamentarian , Dr. Fatmata Hassan and her thuggish sons and Building Evaluator and the complications to his health that led to his death.
The government never disputed Magistrate Fisher’s report when it was delivered. Why is it only now, months after the inquest , that the government is coming out with this explanation ? To any reasonable person, it seems that this shameless government has chosen to bring Sierra Leone to international disrepute once more by ignoring the evidence and setting the alleged killers free . We do not believe that a Magistrate of Fisher’s calibre would conduct a whole inquest and not furnish the Attorney General’s office with the files of the evidence obtained.
The nation needs the truth from the government. We need to be given a more convincing reason why Fatmata Hassan and her gang are going to walk free , inspite of the mountains of evidence against them that their beating of Yansaneh contributed to his death. . We do not want to believe that Magistrate Fischer bungled the inquest. Is the government releasing these people because in Sierra Leone today, justice belongs to the highest bidder ? Is the government releasing them because in Sierra Leone today, the wealthy and the powerful are above the law ?
While waiting for the government to come clean with credible answers , we want to call on the people of Sierra Leone to stop looking the other way and make this Yansaneh case their business. Getting justice for the late Yansaneh should not be the concern of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists ( SLAJ) alone. Citizens alike must question the decision of the government and if no satisfactory answers are given, demand a new inquest. We cannot afford to sit down and see this government trampling on the laws of the land they had sworn to uphold.
Justice must be done in the Yansaneh case and it is the duty of every citizen to see that this is done.
PICTURES BY AWARENESS TIMES
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