By Regina Pratt

Defence lawyers in the matter of the Inspector General versus Aluile Perez and 18 others on eight count charge at the magistrate court in Freetown have appealed for unhindered access to their clients at the Pademba Road prisons.

Mohamed S. Turay made this application on behalf of his colleagues before Magistrate Deen Tarawally on Friday August 1.

He asked for an order to the director of prisons to give them unhindered access to talk to the accused persons in confidence.

Turay told the magistrate that whenever they wanted to talk to their clients, security personnel have always surrounded making it difficult for them to talk to their clients in confidence.

Magistrate Tarawally told Turay that prisons have their own laws governing them which he cannot disrupt.

Turay also appealed for the fourth accused Gerald Quintana Perez to be provided with an eye specialist since he was suffering from eye problems and needed urgent medical attention.

Other members of the defense team made similar pleas to the magistrate citing the quality of food accused persons were being fed with and access to personal computer facilities.

The team also applied for bail which was refused by the magistrate.

Charges

The eight count charge included unlawful possession of small arms contrary to Section 19 (1) (a) of the arms and ammunition Act No.14 of 1955; unlawful possession of small arms and ammunition without license contrary to section 19 (2) of the arms and ammunition Act No 14 of 1955 as replaced by section 1 of the arms and ammunition (amendment) Act No. 17 of 1974; conspiracy to defeat the cause of public justice, malicious damage to the property contrary to Section 51 of the malicious damage Act 1861.

First prosecution witness

However, the acting director of civil aviation George Gbomgbo testified as the first prosecution witness.

Led in evidence by the acting director of public prosecution Lawyer Oladipo Robin-Mason, Gbomgbo said his duties and responsibilities were to implement and develop policies of government in line with civil aviation.

He said there were 8 privileges of the sky in which every aircraft operating in Sierra Leone airspace must conform to.

“Aircraft can land for technical reasons, bad weather, malfunctioning of the aircraft and fuelling purposes,” he said adding that the other privileges can be negotiated through bilateral agreement.

The witness further said that the crews onboard the flight must contact the traffic control tower through radio to pass on the information of their intention to land.

The witness also informed the court that the following persons must be contacted on their landing, 118.1, General Manager SLAA, Director Civil Aviation or Deputy Director Civil Aviation or the senior Operations Officer.

He said he recalled on Sunday July 12 this year when he collected his cell phone and saw so many missed calls.

“The calls were from the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the ministry of transport and aviation Abdul Raham Wurie who gave me certain information about Lungi International Airport . I later cross-checked with the control tower to confirm the information given to me by the PS,” he said.

Gbomgbo continued that he moved over to Lungi airport and met the PS, the minister Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay and the eleventh accused Alie Badara Tarawallie whom Gbomgbo asked to brief him on his presence at the airport.

He said the accused told him that an unauthorised aircraft has landed at the airport following which he asked him for the registration number of the aircraft.

Gbomgbo told the court that he was shown the plane by the Tarawallie who took him to the  aircraft Cessna 441 painted white with blue stripes inscribed horizontally on the fussy large.

He said the accused showed him the registration numbers and then Gbomgbo went to the control tower and requested from the acting General Manager John Brima, the voice recording from the control in respect of the communication between the control tower and the aircraft crews.

“They told me that they would prepare the tape recording and communication which they indeed prepared,” he said.

The matter was adjourned to Tuesday July 5, 2008 for the witness to continue his testimony.