Pa Sallah Jeng, the suspended Lord Mayor of Banjul City council, was on Wednesday acquitted and discharged on two counts, out of the six counts he has been standing trial on. The acquittal followed a ruling delivered by Justice Monageng of the Banjul High Court on a submission of no case to answer made by his counsel.

In her ruling on the no case submission, the presiding judge stated that at the close of the state’s case the accused’s attorney made a submission of no case to answer. She said that both the defense attorney and prosecution articulated the law governing submission of a no case to answer. She added that the prosecution is obliged to prove all the ingredients of the offence charged.

She said on count one the accused is alleged to have corruptly or dishonestly abused his office as a pubic officer by directing the council CEO to pay the sum of D10,000 to EAP printing press for the printing of 1000 copies of the booklet entitled "In My Time" for his private benefit. She said the circumstances leading to this charge are that the accused as Mayor of Banjul City Council authored a book entitled In My Time. She said that in the evidence of PW2, who was the CEO, he said that before the accused’s suspension he had called him to his office and discussed the publication. She added that PW5, the Finance Director, confirmed receiving an instruction to pay from the CEO. She said the witness also confirmed that the publication is about Banjul City Council.

She ruled that on the face of it the state had not produced enough evidence to put the accused person on his defense, stating that he is therefore found not guilty on the count and accordingly acquitted.

Justice Monageng further stated that on Count two in which the accused was charged with receiving per diem in excess, PW5, the Director of Finance, told the court that the accused is not involved in calculation and payment of the allowances. She added that in Count two also, the court found that the prosecution had failed to produce enough evidence that would warrant the accused to put up his defense, and that therefore the accused is accordingly acquitted.

She finally stated that considering the totality of the answer to Counts 3,4,5 and 6, she found that the accused needed to give an explanation on those counts.

The case was at that point adjourned to today 8th June 2007, for continuation on defense evidence.