The Kanifing Magistrates Court, presided over by Acting  Principal Magistrate Sainabou Wadda-Cessay, yesterday acquitted and discharged the co-publisher and a managing editor of The Point newspaper.

Pap Saine was facing charges of false publication, to which he pleaded not guilty. However, proceedings in his trial before Magistrate Lamin George of the Banjul Magistrate Court continued yesterday,  with Dawda Leigh, a birth registration officer at the Medical and Health Unit of the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare, testifying.

The beleaguered journalist is facing charges of declaration by false pretence and obtaining a Gambian birth certificate and other national documents through fraudulent means, which he denies. Dawda Leigh, in his testimony, said that on 17th February 2009, two officers from the Fraud Squad Office at the Police Headquarters visited his office with a birth certificate belonging to Pap Saine. According to Dawda Leigh, the officers requested for verification of the said birth certificate’s authenticity, which was later found in registration book entitled CLR2/289/74 and bearing the name of Pap Saine.

The birth and death registration officer revealed that, in accordance with the Registration Act of The Gambia, parents should registered their children’s birth within 14 days, however it is permissible to register at a later stage but this can attract some legal and financial charges. Leigh identified the said birth certificate and the statement he wrote at the police station. The case continues on April 22, 2009.