Sento Conteh, one of the demonstrators of the August 10, 2022 demonstration, was last Friday 30 September 2022 sentenced to two years in prison after she was found guilty of indecent conduct during the August 10, 2022 protest in Makeni.The accused, Conteh, was arraigned before Magistrate Marke Ngegba of the Pademba Road Magistrate Court No. 1 on a count of charge of indecent exposure contrary to the laws of Sierra Leone.
According to the particulars of offence, the accused was on Wednesday 10 August 2022 incidentally exposed herself, to which she pleaded guilty following the charge read to her in court.
State prosecutor Yusuf Isaac Sesay informed the hearing that the accused stripped herself naked in a video that went viral on social media. The prosecutor explained that the video in question showed the genital and other private parts of the accused Sento Conteh.
Sesay added that though the accused didn’t waste the time of the court to be sentenced to twenty-nine (29) months yet it would serve as a cautionary measure to others in the tricks of exposing their private parts.
He observed that the accused could be a mother, sister, girlfriend and aunt that has brought shame to womanhood, pointing out that what Sento Conteh did was only legally wrong but narrowly wrong. Representing the accused, was G. Conteh, who, in his plea for mitigation, said the accused had not wasted the court’s time and she is a first time offender who has never has conflict with the law. Lawyer Conteh disclosed that the circumstances leading to the indecent exposure was as a result that she lost her husband and child on the day of the alleged incident. Conteh however pleaded with the bench to temper justice with mercy on the accused so that she would be cautioned and discharged or made to pay a minimum fine.
Having heard the plea of the counsel, Magistrate Ngegba replied that though the accused did not waste the court’s time, her offence is however serious thus sentenced her as a first-time offender to two years in prison.
