A Brazilian forensic expert, Samuel Ferera, on Tuesday testified in the trial of Yankuba Badjie and eight former officers of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) at the High Court in Banjul.

Dr Ferera told the court that he was invited to The Gambia last year to help identify human remains through DNA testing. He said he was a forensic pathologist and had worked several years as a scientific coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights violations.

He said on his arrival in Banjul he was taken to the ministry of Justice and the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital to begin the process of identifying human remains.

The forensic expert said he collected bones, a tooth of the deceased and put them in a special device and sealed it. He then put the sealed device in a box which he labelled.

Dr Ferera said he collected blood and saliva samples from the son and daughters of the late Solo Sandeng who were introduced to him at the hospital. He said he put the samples on a special device and sealed them and also placed them in a box which he labelled. 

He said he handed over the two sealed boxes for safe keeping to police superintendent, Thomas Gomez, in the presence of the Justice minister and that some weeks later he received the two boxes the same way he left them here in The Gambia.

Dr Ferera said he opened the boxes and found that the items were well preserved; that he examined the samples and double checked every step he went through during the examination. He said their chief examiner did the testing in a different way and the results were the same.

The witness said an X-ray and the DNA from the cells of the bones collected were tested and that they did the same test with the samples they took from the family members of the Late Solo Sandeng (the son and daughters); that after all the process, they found out that the results were all the same.

He said he identified the results from the DNA of the bone cells, and saw that they have the same characters with the DNA from the blood samples collected from the son and daughters of the late Solo Sandeng; that they then came up with a result that those remains were from the body of the late Solo Sandeng. He said after finishing their work, he wrote a report which contained all the steps they took to carry out the test.

He said the report he prepared was with him in the courtroom and that there were three signatures on the document.

At this point the prosecutor Lawyer Mendy applied to tender the report. The defence team objected on the grounds that the report was scanned.

Lawyer Mendy told the court that the report was the original copy and that there was nothing on the document indicating that it was scanned. She argued that it was signed by the witness.

The presiding judge overruled the defence objection and admitted the report.

The accused persons in this case are Yankuba Badjie, an ex-director of the NIA, Sheikh Omar Jeng, an ex-director of operations at the NIA, Baboucar Sallah, Haruna Suso, Tamba Mansareh, Lamin Darboe, and Lamin Lang Sanyang. The 2nd accused person, Louise Gomez, an ex-deputy director of the said agency, died whilst under the custody of the State, during the course of this trial. However, Yusupha Jammeh, the 6th accused person was acquitted by the Court upon the State’s application for his acquittal.

They are facing trial on numerous charges ranging from conspiracy to commit felony, assault causing grievous bodily harm, murder and making false documents.  They all denied any wrongdoing.

The trial continues