Reports reaching JollofNews suggest that beleaguered Austrian nationals Manuel Di Stofleth Mitterer and Angelika Mitterer could have hope of getting back their confiscated travelling documents and laptop as their legal cases proceed at Gambia’s lower and high courts.
JollofNews gathered from dependable sources that moves were made last week at the upper echelons of the national police towards returning the items to the Stofleths.
The police were contacted for their reaction.
If confirmed, the return of the confiscated laptop computer back to the Stofleths would provide a huge reprieve for them as the device is a treasure trove of information about cryptocurrency transactions that could lead to the discovery by the police of millions of dalasi that Manuel allegedly attempted to conceal from his business partners Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Limbertus Van Andel.
The Stofleths lost three court rulings in the space of less than six months.
Their lawyers senior counsels Ida Drammeh and Sheriff Tambedou have hit a cul de sac in their attempt to save them from prosecution from lawful order charges. The Banjul Magistrates’ Court jettisoned their well-articulated legal arguments in opposition to the prosecution’s well-grounded legal arguments that the Stofleths did indeed have a case to answer for refusing to obey a lawful order.
The Kanifing High Court, chaired by Justice Kwabeng, ruled late last year that Manuel, through his legal representatives senior attorneys I. Drammeh and S. Tambedou, erred procedurally in his suit against his partners. The decision was appealed but when the lawyers came face to face with counsel Kebba Sanyang earlier this month at the high court, he maintained that the court cannot review it’s own decision, except in exceptional circumstances. Counsel Sanyang contended that this case did not fall under that category.
Justice Kwabeng is expected to deliver his ruling in the matter early March.
Manuel’s legal case against Kasumai Real Estate, which is owned by Solomon, has also derailed.
The German ambassador to The Gambia H. E Klaus Botzet recently had a private conversation with Mr. Touray at the police HQ in Banjul during which the Deutsch diplomat reportedly attempted to use his influence on the Gambia’s police chief to drop the disobedience of lawful order charges levelled against the Austrians.
The police last year pressed the charges against the Stofleths for obstructing the course of an authorized investigation.
Investigation was launched against the duo sometime last year on suspicion of concealing details of financial transactions from their business partners.
Tamba and Andel filed a report with the police after suspecting the Austrian of diverting millions of dalasi of their investments to personal use.
The trio are shareholders in the Bitcoin Tower block of nearly 31 apartments, an underground car park, restaurant and offices. Tamba and Andel each owned 35% of the shares while Mitterer was given 30% of the shares because he had no money, but has expertise in construction and marketing.
The Austrian admitted to having lodged the proceeds of the apartment sales into his cryptocurrency wallets and vaults, but he made sure the details were hidden from his partners and the police.
