The conditions surrounding the bail granted to the beleaguered Managing Director of Carnegie Minerals, Mr Charles Northfield, remain in force following a High Court ruling to that effect yesterday. The High Court in Banjul on Monday dismissed a motion filed by Mr Northfield, seeking for a review of the conditions attached to the bail given to him.

The Banjul High Court, presided over by Justice NaCeesay Sallah-Wadda, on 15 February granted bail to the Carnegie boss with a deposit of D5m and two title deeds worth D2m each as bail conditions. But on 18 February, Mr Northfield filed a motion for a review of the requirements around his bail, to which the state responded by filing a motion in which they indicated their non-objecting with the defence’s application.

However in her ruling yesterday, Justice Sallah-Wadda indicated that neither the defence nor the state had raised the issue of her court’s jurisdiction to review its own decision. She added that the defence counsel had also never filed anything to show that the court had jurisdiction to review its own decision, noting that the matter regarding a court’s review of its own decision is contained in the rules of the Supreme Court. Quoting section 19 of the 1997 Constitution to back up her ruling, Justice Sallah-Wadda said that the court could not review its own decision, adding that the best thing for the defence to do is to file an appeal at the Court of Appeal, elucidating that the court lacked the jurisdiction to review or revisit its earlier decision.

Justice Sallah-Wadda finally dismissed the application for the review of the bail conditions, adding that the decision of the court on 15th February 2008 was still valid. Mr Northfield, Managing Director of Carnegie Minerals Company Ltd, and the company itself, are standing trial at the Banjul High Court before Justice Na Ceesay Sallah-Wadda on three counts of economic crimes and one count of theft.

The case resumes on 17th March for trial.