By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
Hawa Madiana Hunt
Hawa Madiana Hunt, a -42-year-old Sierra Leonean Canadian citizen, who is facing two criminal charges in Sierra Leone for abusing President Bio and his wife Fatima Bio on social media, yesterday made her third appearance in court to answer to the charges against her.
The state prosecution led by Lawyer Yusuf Isaac Sesay, who presented two prosecution witnesses, played the social media video in court in which the accused allegedly used abusive languages against the President and the First Lady.
The State presented two police witnesses and closed the case for the prosecution. The defence team led by Lawyer Rashid Dumbuya, informed the court that they intend to do a no case submission on behalf of their client.
Magistrate Santigie Bangura denied a bail application made by the defence team and remanded the accused to the female correctional centre on the grounds that the evidence against her is strong. He said the accused is a flight risk and shouldn’t be granted bail.
Hunt, who is a reality TV star, a song writer and entertainer, was sent to court after she allegedly violated Section 44 (2) (b) of the Cyber Security and Crime Act 2021 (Act No. 7 of 2021).
The charges stem from her social media activity between April 1st and April 30, 2024, during which she allegedly used her Tiktok account, titled “Hawa Hunt” to post messages aimed at insulting the president and the first lady of Sierra Leone, with the purpose of damaging their character and inciting public disorder against them.
The state had also alleged that Hunt uses a computer to post derogatory remarks against the presidency with the intention to damage his reputation.
Led as the first prosecution witness, Paul Alicious Moseray, explained that on Friday 20th of December, 2024, his attention was drawn to a video making rounds on social media in which Hunt was insulting the President and the First Lady.
He narrated that, on the following day, Saturday 21st December, a team of police officers led by one Detective Inspector Amos Mohamed Lansana and him (the witness) went where the House of Stars Reality TV Show is hosted to arrest the accused.
According to him, they had a meeting with the management of the show who agreed to allow the arrest the next day, and on 22nd December, they executed the arrest.
He further testified that, during the interrogation process of the accused she admitted to be the producer of the said video and pleaded that she didn’t do the video with an intention to hurt anyone.
He said before they started the interrogation processes, he informed the accused that she was entitled to a lawyer, but that the accused agreed to make a statement in the absence of her lawyer.
However, when crossed examined by the defence, witness Moseray said the matter has no complainant and that he obtained statement only from the accused person.
He said their action to arrest and charge the accused to court without complainant was fair and professional.
Detective Inspector Mohamed Jusu, second prosecution witness attached to the Cyber Crime Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department, on 23 December, 2024, said he received a request from the first prosecution witness to do a forensic examination and analyse a drive that contained the abusive video of the accused, which he did by following the necessary steps.
In cross examination, after playing the video in court, the witness said the video was posted on Facebook by one ‘Mama Lucky’ and when they inspected the phone of the accused they did not find such video.
He said he didn’t investigate the voice of the accused to determine whether it was her original voice in the video.
Trial resumes on Friday.
