Yankuba Touray and Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay were rearrested on Wednesday afternoon few hours after the Kanifing Magistrates Court dismissed their witness tampering case.

The case against Yankuba Touray and FJC was dismissed after the state made an application to withdraw the charges and requested that the court discharged the accused persons.

The prosecutor, A.N Yusuf, told the court that the state was making an application for the accused persons to be discharged relying on section 68 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

However the defence lawyers, Lamin Camara and A. Sissoho, citing Section 68 of the Criminal Procedure Code requested that the accused persons be acquitted rather than discharge.

“The (prosecution) has not advanced any reasons for the withdrawal. It would not be in the interest of justice to subject them (the accused persons) to the risk of prosecution before another court on the same charges; that would be a travesty of justice,” Camara told the Court.

Lawyer A. Sisoho defending Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay told the court that the prosecution was withdrawing the charges to institute another case before the High Court. He said the court should acquit the accused in the interest of justice.

In her ruling, the presiding Magistrate, Isatou Janneh-Njie, overruled the defence objection adding that it would be premature and unjust for the Court to exercise its discretion to acquit the accused persons under the circumstance. She said the prosecution has called only one witness who was yet to complete his testimony.

Shortly after they were discharged the Gambia Police rearrested Yankuba Touray and Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay and took them to Kairaba Police Station. Police sources said they were later granted bail in the sum of one million dalasis each and two Gambian sureties. The accused persons, the sources added, were served with an indictment notice to appear at the High Court on April 16.

Yankuba Touray, a former AFPRC Junta council member and Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay, a former speaker of the National Assembly, were arrested for interfering with the work of the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission by coercing a witness not to testify before the commission.