Pastor Julian Khan.
Head of Mission
Mercy Mission International Ministries
23 Canon Street
Freetown
mercymissionint@yahoo.co.uk
www.mercymissionint.org
Your Excellency Julius Woonie Maada Bio
President of the Republic of Sierra Leone
Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Date: 18th December, 2019
Serious Concerns Regarding the Conduct of Justice Alusine Sesay, Justice Albert Moody of the High Court of Sierra Leone, in the matter between me Pastor Julian Khan as Tenant, and Mr. Mohammed A. Jalloh, Landlord; in respect of property situated at 24 Decker Drive, Regent Road, Lumley, Freetown.
Attached are Court Orders Made in our favor by Justice Alusine and without following due process he has overturned these court orders unjustly.
I am constrained to write to you directly regarding the conduct of Justice Alusine Sesay of the High Court, which tends to amount to gross miscarriage of justice and disregard for due process of the law.
I had occupied the property of Mr. Jalloh at 24 Decker Drive off Regent Road Lumley, as a faithful tenant since 2008. This property was vacant / empty for more than ten (10) years, local residents labelled it as a haunted / ghost house. After developing it, my trouble started with the Jallohs.
Prior to the judicial corruption of unjustly evicting me, I was running a primary school, conducting church services and operating a radio and television station within the premises, and I have honored all rents due to date to the landlord, Mr. Jalloh.
In 2014, the landlord, without giving me any prior notice to quit the said property, applied to the then Magistrate Albert Moody of Magistrate Court to have me evicted. I had earlier approached the landlord to regularize my tenancy and have it properly documented; apparently, this did not go down well with him, and he resorted to court action, albeit in an irregular manner, even though I have honoured my agreement to develop the compound by facilitating a nine hundred seater church, three equipped broadcast studios and educational training centres. In addition, Mr. Jalloh had demanded from me arrears of rents I did not owe, as I was paying my rents by direct bank transfer to him, which he did not bother to acknowledge or provide receipts for. My lawyer, Mr. A. B. Bangura, appeared on my behalf and applied to Magistrate Moody to have the matter transferred to the High Court because of the quantum of the arrears Mr. Jalloh was demanding- US$ 18,000, which we deny ever owed to him.
Magistrate Moody rejected the application from my lawyer and ruled that I be evicted from the premises, which the bailiffs executed expeditiously, again without adequately providing me with evidence of a valid warrant or notice of their arrival. During the eviction, valuable properties worth close to US$ 2 million were lost and damaged, including all of our three studios equipments, Television and Radio broadcasting transmitters, Backups, Antennas and Links, and our school computer lab and Church PA systems with six Generators, Not to mention Vehicles and Machines parts all stolen.
My lawyer appealed to the High Court presided over by Justice Alusine Sesay who set aside Magistrate Moody’s ruling and ordered that I be restored to the premises to carry on with my business, which I did. I also undertook extensive repairs and refurbishment of the property that was severely dilapidated when I took repossession of it in 2015.
The landlord again took the same matter to the same Judge, Justice Alusine Sesay, to set aside his (the Judge’s) own previous ruling and asked for a Stay of Execution pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal which, rather ironically, the Judge granted on the misconception that I no longer use the premises, which was completely false. When my lawyer moved that the court visit the locus to verify whether I was still occupying the premises, Justice Alusine Sesay refused, and advised my lawyer to prepare to appeal to the Appeal Court, which obviously indicated that he was going to rule against me.
Before the Judge could hear the matter, Mr. Jalloh somehow acquired another warrant to evict me for the second time, again without any notice whatsoever. My lawyer brought this new development to the notice of Justice Sesay who intervened and had me restored to the premises. It turned out that the process adopted by Mr. Jalloh was completely illegal and the judge dissociated himself from that action by the bailiffs. Nonetheless, the Judge awarded cost of Le5 million for that unlawful eviction exercise, in addition to the cost Le10 million for the action brought by Mr. Jalloh against me, bringing the total cost to Le15 Million, which I am expected to pay. In October 2016, Justice Alusine, without giving me the right to be heard or represented, finally ruled in favour of Mr. Jalloh, and bailiffs forcefully evicted me from the premises causing me additional great loss and damage to my newly acquired TV and Radio studio equipment’s and properties. These corrupt practices completely closed down our Schools, resource centres for vocational training and Radio and Television production and broadcasting. It also smeared the judiciary of SL preempting the withdrawal of financial support for all our projects in SL.
My major concerns:
1) The jallohs are direct relations of the former Chief Justice Haja Umu Tejan jalloh who is believed to have unduly influenced the judiciary, resulting into all these corrupt practices Against school children, church, radio/TV station.
2) The former Chief Justice Charm was practically groomed by Haja Umu Tejan jalloh and I know for a fact that there was a meeting between the preceding judge and the Chief Justice Charm prior to the judge’s biased statement of refusing to hear my lawyer “my lawyer should prepare for appeal as he was setting the matter aside for judgment”
3) What in the world could have caused a high court judge to unjustly without any respect for the law he has sworn to uphold, blatantly overturn these court orders without following due process of the laws of Sierra Leone? Could he have been influenced to disregard the law and disastrously disrupt the future of hundreds of school going children? I leave that for your Excellency to look into.
4) Is there anymore true justice for ordinary Sierra Leoneans that are not politically connected, related to members of the judiciary top class?
5) While the former Anti-Corruption Commissioner (ACC) showed no interest in this case, given the gross contempt and total disregard for law and order? Can the new ACC Commissioner look into the matter to ascertain whether this case which clearly has international concerns and possible obstruction of justice determined if there is wrong doing or not. Is Justice Alusine Sesay above the law? Has he now got the licence to commit crimes at will, even against other Sierra Leoneans? Whether the matter is a civil matter or not? Wrong is wrong and in the interest Justice the ACC must look into this case to restore our broken image around the world.
6)Now that the former Chief Justice Charm is no longer in office, it is in the interest of justice and fairness to investigate his role in the matter.
Your Excellency Sir, we have been robbed of our passion to continually demonstrate our patriotic duties and love to helping our orphans and destitute children due to the high levels of judicial corruption and blatant abuse of the offices of both the former magistrate court of Albert Moody and that of Justice Alusine Sesay respectively, our SL people have been greatly deprived of much needed humanitarian help that we had constantly provided over the past sixteen years of Mission Services in SL. For our country to heal from chronicle toxic corruption and abuse of power even in the judiciary, there has to be a complete legal redress to these punitive injustices and those found culprible must be prosecuted by law whether they are police officers, law officers, civil servants, land grabbers, etc.
As President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, I crave your indulgence into this matter to verify the facts and ascertain the veracity and legality of Justice Sesay’s ruling and actions in this matter so far, Chief Justice Cham’s unholy influence in denying our basic human rights to justice.
Yours Sincerely,
Sign:
Pastor Julian Rogers Khan