In her reply to a letter from the prosecutor for her legal opinion on the case, she concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the suspects.

[contextly_sidebar id=”huUOmRxUqbC4wPoOWdNppI5xOQoIWOvS”]The suspects were standing trial for storming a Kumasi Circuit court and freeing 13 of their members who were standing trial for wreaking havoc at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council in March this year.

But according to the State Attorney, Marie Louise-Simmons, “the evidence available makes it extremely impossible to successfully prosecute any of the suspects.”

She noted that the main witness in the case; two police officers who were at the court when the accused persons committed the offence could not identify the suspects. 

Read her opinion on the evidence provided below:

From the docket, the incident occurred inside the KMA Circuit Court room. The evidence suggests that it was a very busy Court that day. However, only two (2) Policemen being the (CWO) in the Court were made to volunteer witness statements.

The complainant, volunteered a statement, however, his statement does not suggest that he was a witness to the incident.

The statement of the two (2) Policemen clearly indicate that they could not identify any of the persons that forcibly entered the Courtroom that day in disregard of the judge’s orders and aided the escape.

Sgt. Asagre stated clearly that he could not identify any of the said criminals. Sgt. Evans Kugbeadzor also stated that his attention was on the safety of the judge and after ushering the judge into her chambers; he returned and realized that all the 13 accused persons and their supporters had left the court. There is no justification from the diary of action that the police got any confidential information about the identity of the action persons that aided the escape.

Again, after the arrest of the suspect, there is no indication that an identification parade was conducted for any of the possible witness to have identified any of the suspects.

All suspects have also denied in their statements that they committed any offence, Infact, none of them admitted that they entered the court room that day, though of them admitted being outside the court room that day.

It is basic principle in criminal prosecution that “there can be no better identification of an accused than the evidence of a witness who swears to have seen the accused committing the offence.”

As it stands now, there was not even a single witness who can aid the prosecution to identify any of the suspects. There is also no other piece of evidence that links of the suspects to the offence they have been charged with.

Despite the unfortunate and despicable incident that occurred the manner in which it occurred, the investigations conducted and the evidence available makes it extremely impossible to successfully prosecute any of the suspects here in.

I therefore advise that the charges of DISTURBANCE OF COURT AND RESISTING ARREST & RESCUE against the suspects must be dropped for lack of evidence to prosecute.

Gov’t denies sanctioning drop of charges

Meanwhile, the government has denied that it sanctioned a decision to the drop charges against the freed Delta Force members.

The Ministry of Information in a statement copied to citifmonline.com said that the Principal State Attorney in the case did not consult the Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo before dropping the charges against the accused.

It further hinted that it was further investigating the matter and will take the necessary actions to remedy the situation.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The state attorneys have in recent times embarked on series of strike actions demanding better conditions of service.

[contextly_sidebar id=”uxo9gkRQB7zPtWxidv1bSYRRAB5JhnU4″]In 2016, the association embarked on a sit-down strike over the erstwhile National Democratic Congress’ failure to meet their demands, which include the provision of vehicles, harmonized salaries, sustainable pension schemes and logistics.

According to the President of the Association, Francisca Tete-Mensah, that may not happen this year as the President Nana Akufo-Addo has demonstrated goodwill and acted positively to help bring to an end their many challenges.

According to her, the association is currently holding talks with the new administration.

“He [Nana Addo], gave a promissory note that he will attend to us and he has instructed the current Attorney General to have a meeting with us.  We’ve had the first meeting with all the stakeholders, Ministry of Employment, SSNIT, Finance Ministry, Controller and Accountant general department, and she has asked us to give her some time.”

She added that, “She [Attorney General] will have to impanel the legal service board so they deal with the problems of pensions, conditions of service, harmonization with the bench etc. We are giving her the grace period to address all our issues so everything is on course. We are on the waiting period. The new Attorney General and the other stakeholders have demonstrated a commitment to addressing our issues, which is why we are very quiet, giving them the grace period.”

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo at her vetting before Parliament, indicated her preparedness to resolve the concerns of the state attorneys.

He said although the President has intervened to get the state attorneys to get back to work, measures will be put in place to ensure that in the medium and long-term, their demands will be satisfied.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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