By Francis H. Murray
Sierra Leone’s former defense minister, Rtd Major Alfred Paolo Conteh, has been charged with treason.
Conteh made his first appearance in court on Monday since his detention after been allegedly nabbed with a semi-automatic pistol within State House, the office of the president.
The police accused him of attempting to assassinate President Julius Maada Bio.
The incident happened on 19th of Mach 2020, when the accused visited State House upon the President’s invitation for a meeting on the country’s preparedness for the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Conteh was charged alongside two other officials, Saa Antony Sinnah, Deputy Commissioner of the Small Arms Commission, and Prince George Fuss, a Justice of Peace.
All three appeared in front of Magistrate Hannah Bonnie of Court No. 1 at the Pademba Road Magistrate Court. They face a total of 16 charges, with Conteh facing the bulk of the charges, including carrying small arms without a valid license, having a loaded arm in public place, conceding arms unlawfully and treason.
Sinnah and Fuss are being prosecuted for their complicity in facilitating Conteh’s possession of the firearm.
Conteh, as Defense Minister in the administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, led the country’s Ebola response efforts between 2014 and 2016. Conteh was visiting State House for the second time since consultations between the president and the former Ebola team started on the covid-19.
During his examination by State counsel, Adrian Fisher, Prosecution witness No 1., 4645 Alhaji Brima Ngaima of the Joint Presidential Taskforce at State House, told the court that he was on duty on the 19th of March at 11:45am when the Chief Security Officer at State House instructed him to go down to the reception.
He said few minutes after his arrival at the reception, he saw the first accused, Conteh, coming towards the security scanner, adding that Conteh bypassed the scanning machine while he held a small brown bag, making his way directly to the President’s office.
Ngaima also noted that having realized that he had bypassed the security scanner, another inspector shouted and halted Conteh, instructing him to bring back the bag he held in his hand. That, according to the witness, was when Conteh handed the bag over to be checked, where they found a gun. After the search, a pistol was found in the said bag and the attention of the Criminal Investigation Department was called to investigate the incident, the witness added.
Defence counsel for Conteh, Ady Macauley, argued that his client had been charged in the absence of his legal counsel.
Macauley lamented that the documents of the charges were also not presented to his team despite his client being held at the Male Correctional Center for over a week.
Macauley added that the State had not given them the necessary time to prepare Conteh’s defense. He therefore pleaded with Magistrate Bonnie to grant them time to confer with the client and to fully understand the issue.
Magistrate Bonnie gave the court a 20-minute recess which allowed Macualey and his team to confer with the accused.
In addition to Macauley’s appeal, another defense counsel for the 1st accused, Lawyer Roland Wright, pleaded that he be granted bail on the premise that he was not a flight risk especially at a time when the entire country is closed to both air and land travels.
Defense counsels for the 2nd and 3rd accused persons; Thollar Thompson Jr. and Selwyn A. Nicol, respectively, followed the line of appeal for the defense counsels of the 1st accused, citing the health conditions of their clients, which they said were not favorable for them to be remanded.
Magistrate Bonnie denied all three accused persons bail and adjourned the matter to the 3rd April, 2020. The Magistrate also instructed the Correctional service authorities to grant Conteh access to his legal counsel.
Mondays and Thursdays have been set aside for the visits.
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