Lawyer for the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Thaddeus Sory has raised objections with some technicalities involving the way the Justice Dzamefe Commission operates.
The Commission has been mandated to investigate Ghana’s embarrassing outing at the 2014 World Cup tournament.
Thaddeus Sory, lawyer for the GFA who spoke on behalf of GFA’s Vice President, Fred Crentsil, debated with the three commissioners about why he felt they were infringing on the rights of his client.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WV5MrvEudOykasZKQTeVY9LFroKysb6y”]The legal tussle ensued for more than 25 minutes.
Laywer Sory was particularly concerned about the fact that the Dzamefe Commission had not explicitly stated if his client will have any immunity of prosecution as stated by law or whether his words could incriminate him later.
He explained that, “in proceedings before a Commission a person called as a non-target witness or as an expert witness shall be compelled to answer a question with regard to the subject matter of the enquiry, although the document or article or answer may incriminate that person.”
He added that the only compellable person to give evidence before the commission is a non-target witness adding that “if you are a target witness you cannot be compelled.”
Lawyer Sory argued that “if the person who comes here does not know whether he is a target witness or a non-target witness he may be subject to criminal proceedings without using incriminating evidence that he has provided against himself without that immunity.”
He also accused the commission of not giving Fred Crentsil the mandatory two weeks advance notice before asking him to appear before it on Tuesday.
“A person on whom a notice of a pare is set shall within two weeks after the service submit to the commission a response to the notice. My instructions are that this hearing notice was deposited at the GFA at Friday, the witness picked it up today. The requirement of two weeks has not been satisfied,” he declared.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana