Pap Saine In Court Today!!!

By Musa Jobe, Our West Africa Bureau Chief, in Dakar

The editor-in-chief of The Point newspaper, Mr Pap Saine, is on Thursday expected to reappear at the Kanifing Magistrates' Court for the continuation of his trial over charges of false publication.

Pap Saine is the latest causality of the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 2004 after being charged with publication of false information.

Saine, also the Reuters correspondent in Banjul, was charged by the police in The Gambia with false publication and if found guilty, he could pay a fine of not less than D50,000 and not more than D250,000 or imprisonment for a term not less than one year, or to both such fine and imprisonment, as amended by the Criminal Code(Amendment) Act 2005 .

The Point editor was earlier this month arrested and detained for several hours before being released on police bail.

In his first court appearance, the prosecution made an application to the court not to grant Saine bail as, in his words, investigations were underway and that remanding Saine on bail could jeopardise the investigations. But his lawyer had eloquently argued that the offence that Saine's charged with is a bailable one and that Saine is a responsible citizen. He was thus given court bail and is due in court on Thursday.

It would be recalled that The Point newspaper had sometime this month published a story claiming that the detained Gambian diplomat Lamin Sanyang was moved to the Mile Two prisons. In the same story the point also reported that Neneh Macwdowl Gaye was appointed Gambia’s Ambassador to the US.