Two jailed and one wrongly charged as court hands sentence on violent altercation

Musa Bayo has been acquitted of all charges after being wrongly implicated in a violent altercation that left one man with grievous injuries. Two other men have been sentenced to one year in prison.

A court has cleared Musa Bayo of any involvement in a violent incident in which two other men assaulted Abdel Raouf with a frying pan, causing grievous injuries. The case also involved theft allegations, but Bayo was found to have played no part in the altercation.

The incident occurred on 30 April 2023, in a shared residential building. According to witness accounts, Kah Abdoulie and Dampha Tauman entered Abdel Raouf Mohfoudi Ali Hassan’s room uninvited after Abdoulie demanded the return of €20 from Hassan’s girlfriend. His girlfriend told him not to let him in as she didn’t know him. He tried to stop him from entering but Abdoulie forced his way in by pushing Hassan out of the way.

Abdoulie seized a frying pan from the kitchen, emptied its contents onto the floor, and used it to strike Raouf on the forehead. Witnesses, including Hassan's girlfriend and her mother, described how Raouf collapsed after being hit, sustaining injuries to his face and hands.

Tauman also assaulted Raouf during the altercation, according to testimonies. Hassan’s girlfriend and her mother tried to intervene and call the police, but Abdoulie grabbed the phone and left the scene with Tauman. 

The court found Abdoulie and Tauman guilty of causing grievous injuries to Raouf but dismissed theft charges.

The court acquitted Musa Bayo after evidence showed he had no involvement in the violence. Instead, witnesses testified that he had tried to separate the parties during the altercation. Elabed and her mother corroborated this, stating that Bayo attempted to diffuse the situation and did not participate in any aggressive acts. 

The prosecution’s handling of Bayo’s case came under scrutiny, with the court criticising the decision to charge him despite clear evidence of his innocence.

In a scathing rebuke, the court highlighted the potentially devastating effects of criminal proceedings on individuals wrongly accused.

“Criminal proceedings have a potentially traumatic and devastating effect on peoples’ lives, not to mention that they rob an individual of his earnestly gained financial resources which go to financing his defence, unjustly depriving him of days on end spent in the Law Courts and in the dock which time could have been lived freely.”

“The injustice towards Musa Bayo is compounded by the fact that six months later when the Court, as differently presided, was again called upon to decide whether a prima facie case existed, there was no contestation by the defence and the Court proceeded for the second time to find that there was a case to answer with respect to the three defendants.” the ruling stated.

Medical evidence presented in court confirmed the extent of Raouf’s injuries, which show harm of a grievous nature on the hands and face.

Abdoulie and Tauman were sentenced to one year in prison for their roles in the incident, with time spent in preventive custody deducted from their sentences. They were also ordered to pay €151 each in expert fees.