The TRRC lead counsel Essau Faal lost his temper with one of the witnesses during a heated exchange today. 

Mr Faal took issue with witness Babou Loum’s answer during the hearing about the 2006 failed coup attempt against former president Yahya Jammeh. 

Mr Loum, 55, was testifying on the independent witness role he played in the March 2006 failed coup.

When asked about the officers he encountered at the NIA, Mr Loum told the lead counsel: “you could ask them, maybe you could have been in mufti there [at the NIA] and know that: ‘I knew them [the NIA personnel]”.

“Mr Witness cut that nonsense,” an angry Mr Faal told the witness.

“You cannot be telling me this thing OK. Answer these questions and answer them respectfully please. 

“You are being treated with respect [and] treat other people with respect. You cannot tell me these kinds of things,” Mr Faal told the witness.

The defiant witness still maintained he has done nothing wrong. 

“I gave him (Mr Faal) respect but what he wants to force me [into accepting]… I am telling him where I knew those people but he’s forcing me to say that I knew them there [at the NIA]. I did’t know them there,” Mr Bahoum said. 

The hearing continues. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba