The defence lawyer, for former AFPRC Junta member Yankuba Touray, has called on the high court to strike out the murder case and free his client. 

Lawyer Abdoulie Sissoho argued that it is illegal for the court to try Mr Touray under the current constitution.

“I urge that the court strike out this case because it is illegal and it infringes the rights of the accused [Yankuba Touray]. 

“I humbly submit that the accused person should be discharged because it is illegal to try him under the current constitution,”  Lawyer Sissoho told the court.

Touray, 54, is facing a murder charge after he was implicated by witnesses at the country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission of partaking in the extrajudicial killing of former state minister Ousman Koro Ceesay in 1995 at his Kololi home.

He however denied the allegations in court as “false”. 

Touray argued that the 1997 Constitution granted him and other members of the defunct AFPRC junta constitutional immunity and should not be tried for events that took place during the junta’s rule. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba