By Lamin Fatajo, Banjul

The dust has settled in the highly publicized former state house press officer Mam Sait Ceesay. Ceesay yesterday walked out of court smiling, as the court dismisses his case. He was acquitted and discharged on the premises that the Gambian state case was weak, unreliable and lack of evidence. The presiding magistrate Kayode told Ceesay to go ahead with his normal life, as he had no case to answer. Mr. Ceesay who lost his statehouse and Daily Observer job was accused of publishing false news, a charge he categorically denied. His defense lawyer Antouman Gaye welcomes the court verdict.

The presiding magistrate says the text message dispatched by the sacked journalist enquiring the sacking of JT  Kujabi does not in any way constitute false news. In that Mam was merely exercising his line of journalistic duty. “  “Can it be said that the text message constitutes a publication or a broadcasting or simply a request for information?” The magistrate  asked. She added that Ceesay was merely asking for clarification and nothing else.

The magistrate was also not convinced by the testimony of Saja Taal. ““When Dr Taal being the Managing Director of the Daily Observer hurriedly published with the caption ‘JT Kujabi Replaced,’ [he] was publishing a false and distorted version of the request received from the accused,” the Magistrate asserted, adding: “I also found that it is both surprising and shocking that the police, having investigated the case, having read the text message, decided to chase shadows when Dr Taal the substance was there to be chased.”

The presiding judge says there was no iota of truth in the testimonies of  the state witnesses. The magistrate said Mam Sait Ceesay violated no law and acted right by dispatching the said text message. “ I have no doubt that both Ousman Darboe and Dr Taal who both read the text of the accused and decided to author and publish the said text by removing the question mark at the end thereof are the duo who acted willfully, negligently and recklessly to make false publication of the accused’s incomplete text message. Based on all the above, I reach the inevitable conclusion that there  is no iota of evidence linking the accused with the alleged false publication.” Consequently the no-case submission of the defence succeeded on all grounds. The accused was therefore accordingly acquitted and discharged on both counts.”

Consequently, the presiding magistrate dismissed the case. Reports have it that the state is planning to appeal the said judgment.

In another development, Journalist Malick Jones has been arrested by the NIA. Mr. Jones was picked from his residence yesterday by agents of the NIA. No reason has been advanced for his arrest. Jones has been walking in and out of state custody since his interdiction last year.