A former chief justice of Gambia, whose petition to practise law in Trinidad and Tobago was dismissed by two High Court judges, has appealed.

Last Wednesday, Joseph Aper Wowo appealed the July 27 decision of Justices Ricky Rahim and Jacqueline Wilson to dismiss his petition, saying “he does not possess the attributes to be admitted to the practice of law in TT.”

Wowo was the chief justice of Gambia during the tenure of then-president Yahiya Jammeh, a former military leader who held office from 1994-2017.

He filed his petition on September 27, 2022, seeking an order that he be declared a fit and proper person to be admitted as an attorney in TT.

His petition was filed without a certificate of fitness from the Law Association, to which he applied in November 2021.

In dismissing his petition, Rahim and Wilson said Wowo did not explain why he did not make certain disclosures to the association, knowing that he would have been aware they were important and relevant to the grant of a certificate of fitness.

“In all of the circumstances therefore the court finds that the actions of the petitioner in making his application lead to the conclusion that he was dishonest in the manner in which he pursued it and therefore he does not possess the attributes to be admitted to the practice of law in TT.

“Honesty and trust are the bulwarks of confidence in the legal profession and absolute requirements that lie at the core of the relationship between the public and the lawyers entrusted through the admission of the Supreme Court to represent them.

“The court would therefore have held that the public could not reasonably be expected to have confidence in the admission of the candidate.”

The disclosures related mainly to reports relating to his conviction in 2014 by a special criminal court in Banjul, Gambia, after a trial of a 13-count indictment.

The charges included abuse of office, breach of trust, conspiracy to defeat justice, offences relating to judicial proceedings and others alleged to have been committed in 2012 while acting as chief justice.

He was sentenced to two years in prison, but after his appeals to the Gambian courts were dismissed, he received a president’s pardon from Jammeh in August 2015, his unserved sentence was remitted and he was released.

Wowo filed a claim in the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) alleging that his human rights were breached by the conduct of the proceedings in the Gambian courts.

The ECOWAS court held that Wowo’s right to a fair trial had been breached and the acts to remove him from office, his trial and conviction were biased, lacking in independence and amounted to non-compliance with due process.

However, since it did not have the power of an appellate court, the ECOWAS court said it could not interfere with decisions of the national courts.

In their ruling, Rahim and Wilson said, “It follows that the petitioner’s convictions have never been overturned as a matter of law and of record. This of course by