By Feima Sesay
Magistrate Santigie Bangura of Pademba Road Court No2 had on Monday, 20th January 2025, withdrawn the file in respect of Reality TV Star Hawa Madiana Hunt for ruling after defence team submitted a “no-case” motion regarding allegations of her ‘’insulting President Bio and his wife.’’
It will be decided on the next adjourned date whether the matter should proceed to the High Court.
The “No-Case came after the Prosecution led two pivotal witnesses and closed its case.
Submitting his “no-case”, lead defence Lawyer, Rashid Dumbuya cited what he described as procedural irregularities. “This case is not just about insult, it is blatant disregard for due process by the prosecution,” he remarked. He accused the prosecution of persecuting his client rather than prosecuting the case.
Lawyer Dumbuya further remarked that “this is also about frivolous, malicious and vexatious prosecution against the accused person.
According to Lawyer Dumbuya, there is “lack of sufficiency of evidence” adduced by the prosecution to warrant a committal of the case to High Court.
Lawyer Rashid also raised jurisdictional issues, stating that his client was brought to the wrong court.
According to Dumbuya, the matter should have been taken to the High Court, noting that the High Court has original jurisdictional over the matter. He therefore urged the Court to struck out the Case and discharge the accused.
Defence Lawyer also made mention of an error on the face of the indictment. According to him, the charges should not have been “sending insulting messages” noting that there is no such offence in the Cyber Security and Crime Act.
He also commented that the elements of the offence for which his client was brought before the Court have not been proven by the prosecution.
He said that the first prosecution witness, did testify before the court that they logged into the Facebook account of the accused, but the video in question was not found.
He also made mentioned of the second prosecution witness who testified that the video was not shared by the accused but a blogger in Germany, named Mama Lucky.
He stressed on what he said was lack of due process, stating that the prosecution did not border to investigate those that shared the video, nor did they do any forensic examination on the voice of the video.
Dumbuya is also of the strong conviction that the President and First Lady were not injured or felt threatened by the video in question, for according to him, they should have reported it to the police and even come to testify in court.
He told the Court that the accused is a Canadian citizen, stating that care must be taken not to destroy the good relationship we have with Canada.
In his reply, State Counsel, Yusif Isaac Sesay said that his learned colleague has misconstrued Section 17 of the Cyber Security and Crime Act, noting that preliminary investigation is one of the vehicles used to approach the High Court. “One cannot just go to the High Court, but there are vehicles, and Preliminary Investigation is one of those vehicles,” he went on.
He added that the submission by the defense that the accused was brought with a wrong charge, State Lawyer, Sesay noted that marginal notes are not created offences, rather it is the wording that does. Lawyer Sesay read out the statement in which the accused made a confessionary statement to the police that she created and send the video on social media. “We are not persecuting because the accused herself made a confessionary statement to the police that she created and shared that video, and even the body language of the accused tells that she meant what she did,” he emphasized.
Like lawyer Rashid, lawyer Sesay also mentioned case laws to back up his argument that cases involving certain public officials, the prosecution becomes complainant by default, therefore the State, he said can take action.
Responding to the issue of the accused’s Canadian citizenship, Lawyer Sesay said that the accused is also a Sierra Leonean and must be subjected to the country’s laws.
After arguments and counterarguments, Magistrate Bangura withdrew the file for ruling. He remanded Hunt in prison and adjourned the matter to Wednesday 22nd January 2025.
