Two witnesses have on Tuesday the 16th September 2008 testified in the ongoing alleged homosexuality case involving Alimameh Dukureh, Principal Bilal Islamic Boarding School.

Mr. Alimameh Dukureh is standing trial on a charge of homosexuality.

He is being arraigned for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts with some of his students at the school campus in Yundum.

In his testimony, a student at the said school (name withheld) told the court that sometime in the month of July 2008 he went out of the school campus after 9 O’clock prayers. And in the morning the following day he was summoned by the accused to his office.

He adduced that in the accused person’s office the accused asked him whether he went out in the night and he answered in the positive.

He said the accused further asked him whether he was out to go after women or to smoke, and he answered that he was out to smoke. He told the court that at that juncture the accused told him that if had gone after women he would know and asked him to remove his trousers. He said after he removed his trousers, the accused got hold of his private parts and said that if he had sexual intercourse with a woman one of his testicles will rise up. He explained that when the accused got hold of his private parts his testicles did not rise and he was asked to go back to class before the accused called him during assembly time and beat him for smoking.

However the second witness, a 15-year old boy (name withheld) who seemed not ready to say sometime about the case admitted that what was in a statement he made on the 30th July 2008 while at the NIA, which was read in court by the prosecutor, ASP Touray.

In that statement he adduced that the accused once called him into his office, and there he found the accused lying in a chair. “When I entered his office he asked me to massage his feet and after that told me to undress”. He added that he first tried to resist but then the accused sounded serious and threatened him saying that he will send him out of his office, he then complied. “After removing my trousers he started touching my private parts and asked me to touch his too so that he can have feelings.” He said he did not touch the accused person’s private parts, but the accused was playing with his. He said after that he asked him to go back to class.

But during cross-examination by the defence counsel, Borry Touray, the second witness again said that he was afraid that was why he had to make such a statement, because he was at the NIA. The case was meanwhile adjourned to the 2nd October 2008.