The Law Hub Gambia makes available a copy of the 2020 Criminal Offenses Bill that, as we understand it, awaits further revision or has not been passed yet. Regardless, some of the changes to the earlier 2019 draft are noteworthy.
Reports of arrests and re-arrests of Gambians, whom authorities believe, have trespassed the boundaries of free speech have been one of many hot topics in local news lately. So a review of some of the relevant items in the 2020 Criminal Offences Bill, or now maybe an official Act, follows below.
2019 Draft CHAPTER XIII – Miscellaneous Offences Against Public Authority. Item 107 that made it a crime to insult the President, the GoTG, any other GoTG bigshots or their parents was removed from the 2020 draft. Perhaps those unhappy with its removal changed the text of a different part of the document to muffle their critics.
To bring Part XVIII – Nuisances and Offences Against Health and Convenience, Item 154 – False Publication and Broadcasting up to date, the 2020 draft added a new phrase so the Item reads as follows …
“(1) A person who willfully, negligently or recklessly, or having no reason to believe it is true, publishes or broadcasts any information or news in any medium or form, which is false in any material particular commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than fifty thousand dalasis or imprisonment for one year or both the find and imprisonment.
(2) It shall be no defense to charge under sub-section (1) that the person did not know that the information or news was false, unless it proved that he or she took reasonable measures to verify the accuracy of the information or news.”
So, those who mindlessly peddle lies about any topic over the internet need to consider the risks they face. Even if they committed this crime while outside T.G., they expose themselves to arrest when they return here.
The illegal practice of FGM has been another hot news topic recently. It looks as though diehard defenders of this primitive ritual planned ahead and slid Item 188 into the 2020 draft.
“Part XXII Offenses Endangering Life and Death
188. Surgical Operation
A person is not criminally responsible for performing in good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation upon any person for his or her benefit, or if the performance of the operation is reasonable, having regard to the patients’ state at the time, and to all the circumstances of the case.”
The male supporters of this sorry Item 188, if they indeed intended to make FGM okay, need to be reminded of the memorable words from anti-FGM crusader Ms Dukary: “It’s not your muffin.”
Last but not least, Marabouts, Fortune Tellers, Witches and pretenders should take note of Item 273:
“Part XXX False Pretenses
273. A person who for gain or reward undertakes to tell fortunes, or pretends from his skill or knowledge in any occult science to discover where or in what manner anything supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found, commits a misdemeanour, and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for one year.”
If the Chinese Confucius Institute here teaches the IChing art of bone throwing and interpreting meanings from their arrangements, it needs to warn their students to avoid cashing in on what they learned.
Over and out,