Justice Amie Saho Ceesay of the High Court on Tuesday adjourned the trial case of leaders of 3 Years Jotna to Thursday as they are denied bail.

The eight accused protest leaders – Abdou Njie, Ebrima Kitim Jarju, Sherrifo Sonko, Haji Suwaneh, Fatim Mballow, Kasim Touray, and Yankuba Darboe – are charged with three counts of rioting, unlawful assembly and criminal damage. Two of the charges attract a life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, state prosecutor Patrick Gomez submitted to the court that the case is from a lower court, arguing that the state has just received the case file from the Inspector General of police a day before Tuesday’s hearing.

Lawyer P Gomez further asked for the Court’s indulgence to adjourn the case in order to enable the state prosecuting office to review the case, adding that “the file is bulky”.

However in their counter defence, lead defence counsel for the accused, Racheal Y Mendy argued “there is nothing before the court that warrant an adjournment as such the adjournment shouldn’t be accepted”.

She also submitted that the accused persons have been in custody since 26 of January 2020, citing section 24 of the 1997 Constitution to avail the accused persons for a fair trial.

R Y Mendy then argued that the state knows clearly when the accused persons are properly charged they should be arraigned before the High Court, adding “taking them to the lower court shows they are not ready to prosecute the case”.

She said the accused persons are all Gambians who do not have any intention of absconding the jurisdiction, citing section 99 of the criminal procedure code.

The accused persons were remanded in custody pending the hearing on Thursday.