former employees of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and Lands, Mines and Energy Ministry on May 26.
They are Moses Wogbeh, former FDA Managing Director; John Kantor, former Technical Manager; Jangar Kamara, former Manager for Commercial Forestry and David Blayee, former Surveyor and Maxwell Gwee, former Director of Cartography at the Lands, Mines and Energy Ministry.
They were indicted in February on charges of economic sabotage, criminal conspiracy, forgery and counterfeiting that robbed the government of US$6 million.
In the motion, the defense lawyer said the prosecution in an attempt to establish a prima facie case against them as laid down in the indictment, produced nine regular witnesses and several special witnesses, none of whose testimony is conclusive against any of the defendants to sustain conviction.

The defense lawyer further said that from the evidence produced, prosecution has “failed miserably” to establish their case beyond all reasonable doubts, noting that they lack the basic legal requirement for a conviction.
But the prosecution argued that the motion earlier filed by the defendants is a subject for denial and dismissal in that it fails to meet the statutory condition for granting such motion.
Prosecution noted that the pieces of evidence adduced during the course of the proceeding are not only sufficient, but also go beyond reasonable doubts to sustain the conviction of the defendants without their testimonies.
LINA/CMJ/JGT