Binta A Bah<\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>State Counsel Patrick Gomez has told a high court judge that Bob Keita\u2019s lawyer had refused their request to conduct a DNA examination on his client following a request.<\/p>\n Addressing the court on why it should not set aside the order for Keita\u2019s blood to be extracted for DNA examination to determine the paternity of the baby of the victim he is alleged to have raped, Counsel Gomez said his office sent two letters in April and June last year for his lawyer to accept the request for a DNA but none of the letters was ever responded to.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing by the argument of the defense, we are wasting the court\u2019s time but what they did not tell the court is how they refused to accept a request from the state. Had the defense accepted our request to conduct DNA at that earlier opportunity, the case would have been over now,\u201d he said, arguing that his application in court for DNA in December last year was also opposed by Keita\u2019s lawyer on the grounds that it could violate the privacy of the accused person.<\/p>\n Counsel Gomez said the order made by the court was done without error or fraud and the court has all the jurisdiction to issue such orders. When Gomez argued that nothing stops the defence from conducting their own DNA, Keita\u2019s lawyer objected but was overruled by the judge, Justice Momodou Jallow.<\/p>\n \u201cThe application before this court is abuse of process, clearly calculated not to allow this proceeding to continue, therefore wasting the court\u2019s time,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n Addressing the court earlier, Keita\u2019s lawyer LS Camara told the court that it will be in the interest of justice to set aside the court order for his client to submit to blood samples. \u201cYou don\u2019t seek court order and go to sleep while the accused person languish in prison. Our application has merits and is not in any way wasting the court\u2019s time but on the contrary is meant to expedite this matter,\u201d Lawyer Camara argued, saying what is meant to delay the court\u2019s time is the state\u2019s affidavit in opposition. Meanwhile, the judge will deliver a ruling on whether to set aside its order for DNA on Wednesday.<\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Binta A Bah Africa-Press – Gambia. State Counsel Patrick Gomez has told a high court judge that Bob Keita\u2019s lawyer had refused their request to conduct a DNA examination on his client following a request. Addressing the court on why it should not set aside the order for Keita\u2019s blood to be extracted for DNA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[2355,2361,7650,7472,260,4068],"class_list":["post-19439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-april","tag-dna","tag-gambia","tag-state"],"yoast_head":"\n