Dada 128

It was perhaps because of this framing and also because I did not understand the court procedures that I didn’t really take in everything that happened next; the way the jurors were selected, the questions the presiding judge asked my lawyer, the prosecutor and the jury when all the their heads would turn towards the judge at the same time. A quick reading out of the official charges which contained the names and places I recognised and some additional questions for my lawyer that he seemed to brush off when he looked over at me and smiled. Then the presiding judge said we should move on to a call of the witnesses. The clerk read out several names that caught my attention. From amid the crowd of spectators I witnessed only as a shapeless mass. I now watched as each person stood up, one by one, and went out by a side door; my boss and the guy who cleaned, Iskra, Shabela , Jalima, Mo. He gave me a nervous little wave. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed them earlier but then the final defence witness, the friend of Shabela’s wife stood up when her name was called. I recognised her. She was declined Thank God,, I thought ; a life story told without her gushings.