MAGISTRATE EDWARD SINGHATEH: A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE?

Edward Singhateh is reportedly appointed First Class Magistrate in the provincial town of Brikama in the Gambia following his graduation with a law degree at the University of the Gambia.
Edward Singhateh was the Vice Chair of the military council (AFPRC) that toppled the civilian government of Sir Dawda kairaba Jawara in 1994. He was then a junior officer (leutenant) in the army.
Lt. Singhateh hailed from a military family and  has been described as a man of few words, a brutal soldier nonetheless who is implicated in various human rights abuses (assault, torture, and murder) of opponents during his time in the military government. He has been named in the murder of Leutenant Barrow, Leutenant Almamo Manneh, and Ousman Koro Ceesay (a former finance minister in the military government); the beatings of Ousman Sabally; as well as the torture of political and security detainees at Mile II central prison.
Therefore, Edward's appointment as a magistrate-a custodian of justice- could be seen as a mockery to the Gambia's legal system. The fair thing to do is to investigate Mr. Singhateh and prosecute him for the crimes he may have committed against the Gambian people.
In 1996, after his ouster in a palace coup, the babyfaced 29 year old military president of Sierra Leone, Valentine Strasser left for the United Kingdom to study law at Warwich college. He was met with protests and boycott by the faculty for his alleged human rights atrocities and violations of the constitutional law of Sierra Leone. Partly because of this, Strasser's law study was short lived. Strasser was later denied entry into the Gambia after abandoning his studies in U.K.
No credible organizathation will induct Edward Singhateh into their "Hall of Fame" with clouds of human rights atrocities over his head. No credible and ethical legal system will embrace heinous human rights violators into their fold. Civil organizations and the general Gambian populaion need to resist Edward's appointment.
Above all, as the last defender of the integrity and the ethical practice of law in the Gambia, the Gambia Bar Association must deny Edward's admission into the Bar, whenever that issue arises.