(MFWA/IFEX) – The Attorney General of Sierra Leone, Frederick Carew, on 17 January 2006 declared that his office is unable to lay any charges relating to the death of Harry Yansaneh, late acting editor of independent daily newspaper “For Di People”. Yansaneh died on the night of 27 July 2005 at CUPID Hospital in Freetown, […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – The Attorney General of Sierra Leone, Frederick Carew, on 17 January 2006 declared that his office is unable to lay any charges relating to the death of Harry Yansaneh, late acting editor of independent daily newspaper “For Di People”.
Yansaneh died on the night of 27 July 2005 at CUPID Hospital in Freetown, after Fatmata Hassan – a Member of Parliament of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party of (SLPP) who was also Yansaneh’s landlady – ordered five of her relatives to assault the editor. Yansaneh was 34 years old.
A six-man committee set up by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to probe the circumstances leading to the death of Yansaneh, headed by Magistrate court judge Adrian Fischer, concluded, after its inquest ended on 26 August, that his death was the result of an assault.
“Considering the totality of the evidence, especially the report of Dr. W. A.Willoughby and Dr. Owiz Koroma relating to the cause of the death of the said Yansaneh, my office is unable to prefer charges relating to his death”, Crew stated.
He added that the record of evidence contained in the police file also fails to meet the requirement of the law.
Carew explained that the medical findings of pathologist Dr. Koroma and Dr.Willoughby, Yansaneh’s personal doctor, showed infection in the kidney and bladder. This, Carew said, had no relation to the assault on the editor and his death.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Association Journalistic (SLAJ) – which has consistently pressured the government to prosecute Hassan and her relatives – has rejected Carew’s argument.
