THE BIG FISH WALKING FREE:

Ara Bah is in a hurry. The skies are cloudy, with good chances of rain. She packs up her bag and dashes out of her room. She is a part-time teacher at a primary school in a village in Kombo. She has to be in class on time. 

On those very morning hours of Tuesday June 14 however, barely 33 kilometres away from her house, some of the people who have been named in the rape and abuse of her son were being arraigned at the high court in Banjul, the capital. 

But the 42-year-old single mother was not aware of it.

“I didn't even know that this case was before the courts. I am hearing about it for the first time,” she said when Malagen telephoned her that morning. 

“I am sure other families are not aware either because I am in contact with at least two families, and no one ever told me that the case is in court,” she added.

The police and social welfare authorities that investigated the scandal when it erupted in 2020 had concluded that a range of crimes were committed.

Charges, ranging from the abuse and sexual abuse children, as well as unlawful operation of orphanages, were pressed against at least nine persons.

When the case was first mentioned at the high court in Kanifing, two years ago last month, those accused included Penny Appeal.    

However, in June last year, the justice ministry announced the discontinuation of the case over ‘the discovery of new evidence’ that absolves those indicted. 

 “We will wait until the investigation is out again and we will charge them accordingly,” Lamin Jarjue, the prosecutor in charge of the case, had told Malagen back in January.

About six months following the publication of Malagen investigations, and follow up enquiries, the case has now been brought back, this time at the high court in Banjul.

The big fish walking free

When the revised charge sheet was revealed in court as the case returns to court on June 7, key names in the saga were omitted.  

Atabou Aidara, the man behind the establishment and operations of both charities, is notably missing. So is Buba Saidykhan, acting managing director of Penny Appeal offices in The Gambia. So is Penny Appeal.

State prosecutor Lamin Jarjue defended the dropping of the charges against those two and Penny Appeal. “We prosecute based on evidence,” he told Malagen, adding that the investigation carried out by the police did not show any material evidence that Aidara and Saidykhan had committed any offence. 

How could that be true? 

In official documents seen by Malagen, state investigations had indicted Aidara, Saidykhan and Penny Appeal for operating orphanages without obtaining a legal permit from the social welfare department.

Malagen investigations also revealed further that Annasru was not even legally registered as an entity. Moreover, multiple sources, including staff and students, have made claims that both Aidara and Saidykhan were aware of instances of abuse amid systematic coverup.    

Jarjue did not deny that the charities did not obtain legal permit. He however argued that Annasru was legally registered. 

How could that be true either? 

Malagen has carried out extensive investigations about the organisation, confirming upon multiple company searches over a period of several months that Annasru has not been legally registered. 

As recently as mid-June this year, after taking over the case from Jarjue, Patrick Gomez has made a company search on Annasru and confirmed that it was not registered. 

Last week though, Annasru somehow appeared in the company records. Curiously, just the name and date of registration is in the system. It was registered in 2004, a woman at the registrar's office said. But when asked to make a print out of the organisation’s registration details, she refused. “There is nothing to print,” she argued. 

Meanwhile, out of the six names that remained on the charge sheet, are only two adults. They are Musa Camara, the head of Annasru and Mai Mankara, a foster mother. 

Kebba, Sheriff, Mustapha and Janko are all under 18, older teens who allegedly preyed on younger ones like Ansu at the foster homes.

Though the ‘big fish’ in the case have been left out of the trial, hopes were high for the June 14 hearing. 

When the case came up the previous week, on June 7, as usual, none of the accused persons were in court. But the new judge assigned to the case, Justice Ebrima Jaiteh, would not entertain the foot-dragging.

Without any warning, he accused the police of ‘playing games’ and issued an ultimatum for them to produce the accused persons. 

“If the police cannot produce the accused persons, then the people who bailed them should be brought forth,” he declared.

The prosecutor, Patrick Gomez, also newly assigned to the case, showed no less commitment and frustration. He told Malagen that his office had given further directives to the police to produce the accused persons within 72 hours. 

However, the much-anticipated June 14 hearing did not live up to the hype. The courtroom has little over a dozen people. No curious observer. No civil society activists. No other journalist. Only family members of the few accused persons and security officers, besides court officials. 

“My Lord, these are the three accused persons present for today's hearing,” Patrick Gomez announced. 

The rest are nowhere to be found, he informed the court. 

Mai Mankara is believed to have fled to her native Casamance, in southern Senegal. 

Another accused, Sheriff, a minor, has reportedly changed his telephone number. 

Another accused, Mustapha, also a minor, did not show up but he sent his sister, also a minor, to represent him in court. But she was stopped from entering the duck.  

For those that were present, this was their first day in court, two years after they were formally charged. 

Musa Camara, who faces charges of negligence causing harm and common assault, is the most senior. He looked restless in his long grey shirt as he stepped in the dock. Sheriff and Kebba, facing charges relating to the rape of Ansu and other young children, walked behind him slowly. 

“Why am I here,” Camara quizzed once he settled in the dock. “I don’t know why I am in court and I don’t know what I have been charged with.” 

Justice Jaiteh intervened. “Do you wish to get a lawyer to help answer that question?

“Yes,” Musa replied. 

Soon after that exchange, Justice Jaiteh announced his withdrawal from the case. Musa, it turns out, was 'a classmate and a good brother'.

“I’ve to relinquish myself from the case because I don’t think it is good to proceed with it…,” he announced.  

It has been two weeks since. While the case file now sits on the desk of the chief justice waiting to be assigned to another judge, young Ansu continues to sit on the edge of dropping out of school. 

“Sometimes he looks at me and cries,” said his mother, Ara. “He wants to go back to school like his friends in our neighbourhood. But I can’t pay for him. The kids have been traumatised and they should be compensated and taken care of as expected.”

But if those small fish in the long winding case could be charged with negligent act, what about Aidara and Saidykhan who created and operated the Penny Appeal and Annasru orphanages without a legal permit, where children were subjected to abuse and exploitation? 

The likes of Jarjue, who was in charge of the case, and the children's affairs minister, Fatou Kinteh, who told Malagen that there was no wrongdoing in the case, would not go after the big fish.

But the prosecutor in charge now, Patrick, takes a different position. He said Annasru and Penny Appeal should face justice, somehow. 

But will he get his way?