“Baba K Jobe donated a power of attorney to me, whilst under custody, authorizing me exclusively to negotiate the withdrawal of his property guarantee in favor of Julakay Enterprises. Now this was necessary because Mr. Jobe claimed to be the majority shareholder in this enterprise, while the minority shareholder at the time was busy trying to disposes him of his shares and changing the papers. As his personal family attorney, even before his economic crime trial, I sought to carry out his instructions, but the DPP who wanted to make look like there was a conspiracy between Mr. Jobe and I to move his resources out, trying to make big thing out of it without presenting any such evidence in court. The power of attorney donated in my favor by Mr. Jobe was registered with the state as required by law and that was how they knew about it. I registered it with the state as a public document and brought it to their attention because we wanted transparency. Unfortunately, it appeared they were more interested to put my client in bad public light. The power was subsequently revoked to allay fears as well as to disarm those who were looking to use it against my client and perhaps myself for ill motive. Like I indicated, absolutely nothing went wrong. But the DPP wanted build a mountain out of it and use it as an indication that Mr. Jobe has resources and these resources were intended to be secretly transferred out of the country. Now there is no iota of truth in this. In order to neutralize the effect, the possible effect of this colossal fabrication, Mr. Jobe and I we discussed and decided that we should revoke this whole matter to put an end to these unfounded speculations. “ These were the exact words of Gambia’s leading Human Rights Lawyer Mai Fatty, who recently survives an assassination attempt. A trailer truck driver believed to be an agent of The Gambian Government ran on his car, leaving the popular lawyer motionless. Mr. Fatty was immediately rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital, prior to his evacuation to a Dakar based hospital. In this Exclusive interview with the Freedom Newspaper, Lawyer Fatty commented on reports he received linking agents of The Gambia Government to the incident, Gambia’s alarming human rights record, unfinished persecution he suffered from the hands of the Jammeh Government, Baba K Jobe blood diamond case, the police’s attempt to get him debarred by questioning his credentials as a trained lawyer, Jammeh’s wealth, properties owned by Government officials overseas, rising corruption in The Gambia, the ailing economy and a lot more. Below is part one of the interview we had with Mr. Fatty who was on his sick bed. Please read on……………………..
Freedom Newspaper: How many times have you been arrested under Yahya Jammeh's rule?
Mai Fatty: Several times. I cannot precisely say how many times I have been arrested under this Government. But I do not really care the counts. What is important is that I believe in my principles. I believe in the right to constitutionality and good governance. And if this will land me in trouble, then I’m happy to be in trouble all the time.
Freedom Newspaper: Can you recount on your past arrests. What happened?
Mai Fatty: It’s always very unpleasant you know when they come to pick you up, because there is very little respect for procedure, procedural justice. So it’s been extremely very uncomfortable, very degrading, very humiliating and also very painful because the tendency is most of the time…Often most of the time they silenced you in person and this had happened.
Freedom Newspaper: The office Inspector General of Police recently pressed criminal charges against you. What was the case in question all about and its outcome?
Mai Fatty: Its not really true. I’m not aware of any criminal charges being filed against me by the Inspector General of police. I’m not aware of any charges of any nature. This is mere speculations, which is not factual. But I can say that there was a time in which I was invited in respect to some client matters. A client of mine who apparently absconded bail. I have always been a scapegoat. I was confronted that I had facilitated the escape of my client. He was granted bail by a court and he had sureties. I didn’t see the reason why I should be consulted for that. But no charges have been preferred against me by The Gambian courts.
Freedom Newspaper: And who was this client and what was he accused of?
Mai Fatty: Momodou Sirreh was charged with obtaining….not obtaining a contract, that’s basically. And the matter appeared before B Y Camara, magistrate B Y Camara. Previously before that the matter appeared before another magistrate and then he absconded bail and he is a Guinean National. He left the country without complying with the bail conditions and as a result of that the case was practically frustrated. They later felt that I had made an undertaken to complete the paperwork, in which I was never the surety. I was never the grantor of any nature. But this was a pure intimidation.
None the less, nothing happened. No charges have been preferred against me because really there is no case in this. A lawyer executing his duty. My responsibility was to defend my client in court and it’s the courts duty to concede to bail or not. The court granted him bail on certain conditions, which was narrated in a court order. It’s for the court to take action and not for the police. So they were acting extra -judicially.
Freedom Newspaper: Litigants often complained about being unfairly treated by their lawyers. Has any of your clients ever complained against you?
Mai Fatty: I’m not aware of it. I can say obviously that law is a practice and it’s about relationship between individuals and there is bound to be some unhappiness or unsatisfactory results at some point to another in this whole process. So there is bound to be some complaints, but whether they are well founded or genuine or is another question. But I have not received any complaint against my practice.
Freedom Newspaper: How do you come to know Baba K Jobe?
Mai Fatty: Baba Jobe…Baba Jobe is my client. I’m a lawyer and is our relationship.
Freedom Newspaper: As a former Attorney of Baba Jobe, what can you tell us about the status of Jobe's appeal case against Justice Paul's judgment?
Mai Fatty: I’m still Mr. Jobe’s lawyer. I still represents Mr. Jobe. Technically, my client’s appeal case is before The Gambia Court of Appeal. I must however say that we have so far been unsuccessful in getting any faction on it. What complicates the matter is that the judge who convicted my client, Justice Paul now sits in the Appeal Court together with the prosecutor who conducted the said case. That’s the Ex DPP Agim has also been elevated to the said court of Appeal. The law is that both men are disqualified from hearing the appeal case and it remains the obligation of the state to make the necessary conditions and facilities for Mr. Jobe’s appeal to be heard. After three years of conviction, based on all of the facts and circumstances, I wish I could be more optimistic.
Freedom Newspaper: What make you lost the said case?
Mai Fatty: Well, there are a number of factors really that has…I do not believe that this case was properly fought. This case was properly fought. …. There were many factors outside the court that I believe tend to bear on the matter.
Freedom Newspaper: Was Justice Paul impartial in the way he presided over your client's case?
Mai Fatty: The question is an ethical matter, but I will try to answer it. Now in this matter, whether Justice Paul was fair or not….
Freedom Newspaper: But if you want you can let that one go. We can proceed to the next question.
Mai Fatty: No, well lets come back to it because I have to be careful there is an ethical question there. We will come back to it. Don’t forget it.
Freedom Newspaper: What kind of person is Baba Jobe? Is he corrupt, an evil as portrayed in some quarters?
Mai Fatty: Based on my experiences of dealing with him, under different circumstances, I have no admissible evidence at my disposal to lead me to believe that Baba was corrupt.
As to the economic crime case against him, I do not consider the evidence presented against him legally sufficient to change my mind on this. I still very strongly believe that the conviction of Mr. Jobe is untenable, unsupportable by relevant evidence and that the presiding judge was unquestionable wrong on the law or misconstrued the law. This is accessible in the public records and I cannot go beyond this because I’m forbidden to do so by law, practice and ethics.
On the other hand, speaking like any ordinary Gambian citizen and not as a Lawyer, I would say that logistically Mr. Jobe is a victim of political machinations and on that basis I treats his in castration as consequence of a political judgment.
Freedom Newspaper: And what will you tell critics who say that you represented Baba Jobe just to enrich yourself. That Mr. Jobe paid you millions of Dalasis jut to be freed. Are such reports really true?
Mai Fatty: A big laughter…..Ha Ha ha ha… This is quiet interesting. Let me say this, let me say right away that in the first place this is wrong. I did not ask Baba Jobe to come to me to defend him. He made the independent decision by himself to secure my services based on a criteria he knows better.
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After consultations, I in my professional judgment determined that I would need a strong legal team to defend him. And I invited other lawyers including the eminent lawyer, Mr. Ousman Sillah and requested that he leads the defense team. So I was not 100 percent in control of the defense strategy. So it was not I who defended Baba Jobe in order to enrich myself. I did not secure to represent him. He sought my representation as a legal professional and the case was conducted by the legal team. I cannot take personal glory or personal blame for this.
After enriching Baba Jobe‘s…..I paid a legal fees to his legal defense team. And this is not in million plus people would suggest. I’m not in the position to disclose how others earned and their fees structure is. This would be unethical of me, but certainly your question presupposes that I defended him on my own and took huge junk of money from him. This is not the case.
Freedom Newspaper: And what brought about Lawyer Ousman Sillah into Baba Jobe’s case?
Mai Fatty: Like I told you, Baba Jobe, I’m Baba Jobe’s personal lawyer and his family lawyer. And when this incident occurred, he again consulted me. And in my professional discretion, I approached Ousman Sillah, whom I considered to be one of the best lawyers in Africa, not just The Gambia, to lead me in this case. To be my senior in this case, to lead the defense strategy to free Baba Jobe of the charges. So Ousman was invited by me with the consent of my client and we did this pursuant to thorough discussions and recognizing Ousman Sillah as a formidable Lawyer.
Freedom Newspaper: Has Lawyer Sillah’s assassination attempt affected Baba Jobe’s chances of being acquitted?
Mai Fatty: Speaking like an ordinary Gambian, I think that Baba’s fate had already been filled. But legally speaking, I believe that the efficiency of the legal team was affected with Ousman’s absence. No doubt about that. And I believe that if he had continued to lead the team, the conclusion may not necessarily differ, but the principles would have been absolutely different. So I would say that yes, his absence really affected the defense’s performance.
Freedom Newspaper: Did your client complained of being abused whilst in custody?
Mai Fatty: The question you are asking me to answer is proprietarily. I’m not in the position to disclose communications received from my client under any circumstances, unless he specifically authorized me to do so.
Freedom Newspaper: In your view, has President Jammeh betrayed Baba Jobe?
Mai Fatty: I’m Baba Jobe’s lawyer and not his public relations expert. Again, I’m not privy to the political marriage between Baba Jobe and President Jammeh to make any objective informed determination as to this.
Freedom Newspaper: The State Law office in Banjul in a motion unveiled Baba Jobe’s attempt to transfer his assets in your name. That your claimed that Jobe had given you the power of attorney to oversee his assets in The Gambia. Jobe is married with a wife and kids, why should you lure your client to take such expensive decisions when his own family could have acted on his behalf? Or were you falsely accused?
Mai Fatty: Again, let me clarify Mr. Jobe donated a power of attorney to me, whilst under custody, authorizing me exclusively to negotiate the withdrawal of his property guarantee in favor of Julakay Enterprises. Now this was necessary because Mr. Jobe claimed to be the majority shareholder in this enterprise, while the minority shareholder at the time was busy trying to disposes him of his shares and changing the papers.
As his personal family attorney, even before his economic crime trial, I sought to carry out his instructions, but the DPP who wanted to make look like there was a conspiracy between Mr. Jobe and I to move his resources out, trying to make big thing out of it without presenting any such evidence in court.
The power of attorney donated in my favor by Mr. Jobe was registered with the state as required by law and that was how they knew about it. I registered it with the state as a public document and brought it to their attention because we wanted transparency. Unfortunately, it appeared they were more interested to put my client in bad public light. The power was subsequently revoked to allay fears as well as to disarm those who were looking to use it against my client and perhaps myself for ill motive.
Freedom Newspaper: As your rightly stated, the said power of attorney was revoked. What went wrong?
Mai Fatty: Like I indicated, absolutely nothing went wrong. But the DPP wanted build a mountain out of it and use it as an indication that Mr. Jobe has resources and these resources were intended to be secretly transferred out of the country. Now there is no iota of truth in this. In order to neutralize the effect, the possible effect of this colossal fabrication, Mr. Jobe and I we discussed and decided that we should revoke this whole matter to put an end to these unfounded speculations.
Freedom Newspaper: And what happened to Baba Jobe’s assets?
Mai Fatty: I’m not aware of any assets Baba Jobe may have.
Freedom Newspaper: What happened to the car Mr. Jobe gave you?
Mai Fatty: Oh car? Mr. Jobe has never given me any car. And I challenge anybody who has documentary to prove that. He has not given me any car. But even if he had given me a car, I don’t see any problem with that.
Freedom Newspaper: Do you think Baba Jobe will ever regain his liberty. The Guaranty Trust Bank is also pursuing a Civil Suit against him. What is the said case about?
Mai Fatty: The Civil suit is yet to be determined. Legally I’m forbidden to comment on it. However, the fact that any person is being sued in Civil court for remedies is no reason to conclude wrongdoing on the part of that litigant. In the absence of corresponding conclusive judicial determination to that effect, the same should apply to Mr. Jobe.
Editors note: Part three of the interview will hit the Freedom Newspaper pages soon. We are busy transcribing the interview. There are disturbing revelations to come. Read and digest this masterpiece interview. Lawyer Mai Fatty has let the cat out of the bag. The criminals in Banjul has been exposed beyond redemption. Stay tuned….