Dear Editor,

When I went to Kanifing  Magistrates’ Court  on 19th September ,2011, to cover cases , a colleague of mine told me that Moses  Richards was convicted on both counts of  giving false information to a public servant and sedition.
I t was a distress to me, as I was surprised. I witnessed Moses Richards presiding over cases when he was a magistrate at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court. His court was always lively. He would interpret the law explicitly to laymen at the gallery in his court. He would sometimes caution first time offenders and discharge them or give them an option of a fine if found convicted.
His court was most of the time full to capacity because people would get into his court to know from him what the law is about. There was an instance when he discharged and acquitted an accused person who came all the way from Basse. The acquitted man pleaded to Moses Richards that he had no fare to go back home. To the surprise of everyone in the court, Moses Richards gave the acquitted man some money for his fare to go back to Basse.  This is the personality of Moses Richards.
Moses Richards sometime ago delivered a judgment at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court and some senior lawyers who were present at the end of the judgment, expressed their satisfaction and asked Moses Richards to give them a copy of the judgment for reference. This is another personality of Moses Richards.
What baffles me is that Fatou Jaw Manneh, a Gambian –US based journalist, was once convicted for sedition at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court but was given an option of a fine. Lamin Fatty, who was also writing for  “The Independent” newspaper, was also convicted at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court for giving false information but was given an option of a fine.
Moses Richards was also convicted for giving false information and sedition but was not given an option of a fine. Why?  All these people I have mentioned above were first time offenders because Dodou Sanneh, also a journalist, was a first time offender and this was why he was given an option of a fine when he was convicted for giving false information. Why not Moses Richards?
The fight against Moses Richards started when he was a magistrate at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court. A former lawyer, who is now an influential personality at the judiciary, was defending a litigant in a civil case which was being presided over by Moses Richards and when he delivered judgment against the client of this former lawyer, the former lawyer was not happy about the judgment delivered by Moses Richards. He appealed at the High Court for stay of execution of the judgment.
This former lawyer one day came to Moses Richards’ court and informed the court that he had appealed at the High Court for stay of execution of the judgment.
Moses Richards listened carefully to the former lawyer and after the former lawyer had finished his deliberation, Moses Richards told him that it was the right of the client of the former lawyer to appeal at the High Court but nothing would stop the plaintiff from enjoying the fruit of his judgment.
A hot argument ensued between the former lawyer and Moses Richards. Tempers flared. The former lawyer angrily walked out of the court.
This former lawyer would not stop the fight against Moses Richards, since he is now a very influential personality at the judiciary.
I am not sure whether he has a hand in the conviction of Moses Richards but if he does, he would one day suffer the wrath of his action.
The problem at the judiciary is that it is only Gambians who are fighting their fellow Gambians. What are they going to gain from fighting their fellow Gambians only to see them sent to prison?
The evil that men do lives after them. What goes around comes around.