Abdoulie Sowe, a detective at the Major Crime Unit of the Police Headquarters in Banjul, yesterday told the Court Martial that Captain Wassa Camara, third accused person in the March 21 abortive coup d’etat, “had regretted his involvement and role in the foiled coup plot”.

Testifying before the Court Martial presided over by Justice Akomaye Agim, Police Detective Sowe said Captain Camara admitted that “he and his colleagues were misled by Colonel Ndure Cham, former Chief of Defence Staff”. He gave this testimony during a cross examination by Lamin Jobarteh, defence counsel for Captain Camara.

According to Detective Sowe, Cpt Camara told him that he is a “profossmarshal” in the Gambia Armed Forces and that “he and some of the accused persons would like to be featured on the GRTS to apologise to the general public about their role, involvement and the panic that the foiled coup may have caused”.

He pointed out that this was the reason why some accused persons were paraded on GRTS.

At that juncture, Defence Counsel Jobarteh put it to the detective that other than his name and position as a police officer, nothing that he had told the court was truthful. But the detective insisted that he was “telling the truth and nothing but the truth”.

Counsel Jobarteh then asked the detective whether parading the third accused person on GRTS - before the entire world - was part of his investigative duties. Detective Sowe replied in the positive.

The defence counsel further questioned him on why some signatures on the cautionary and voluntary statements of the third accused were incongruent with some being without signatures? He further asked why the third accused person’s statements were taken on 22, 24, 28 March, 2006? In his response, Detective Sowe argued that Captain Camara was not the only accused person brought before the panel, adding that taking down his statements were “normally due to further investigations into the foiled coup. He was normally called back to confirm certain issues raised by some of the accused persons during the course of the investigations”.

Earlier on, Detective Sowe told the Court Martial he knew Captain Camara on March 21, when the coup plot was foiled, saying “I was a member of the panel set up a day after the foiled coup”. According to him, the accused person was brought before the panel for questioning on his role, involvement and knowledge about the foiled coup.

He told the court that the panel assigned him to take the cautionary and voluntary statements from Captain Wassa Camara. He said he carried out the assignment in a separate office, attended by Tijan Bojang, the independent witness. Detective Sowe said both Captain Camara and the independent witness, Tijan Bojang signed the two statements. The Court Martial continues sitting today.