{"id":234920,"date":"2016-07-28T13:10:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T13:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=234920"},"modified":"2018-03-20T12:18:58","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T12:18:58","slug":"jail-term-for-montie-3-not-harsh-ndebugri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/07\/jail-term-for-montie-3-not-harsh-ndebugri\/","title":{"rendered":"Jail term for Montie 3 not harsh – Ndebugri"},"content":{"rendered":"
A private legal practitioner, John Ndebugri, has said that the 4-month jail terms given to the two panelists, and the host of the\u00a0\u2018Pampaso\u2019 show on Montie FM by the Supreme Court, were appropriate\u00a0for the offences they were convicted\u00a0of.<\/p>\n
Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and\u00a0Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months in jail<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on Wednesday, after they were found guilty of contempt charges.<\/p>\n This was after they threatened the lives of the judges who were presiding over a\u00a0case on the credibility of the voters\u2019 register.<\/p>\n The former PNC legislator’s comments is in response to suggestions that the sentences were harsh and could stifle freedom of speech.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”Aujurkef8vx8vFmjSDcuiXzQ4qeOGbsF”]According to Ndebugri, the judges have sent out a strong message to anyone who comments on the activities of the judiciary to exercise some level of restraint when doing so.<\/p>\n “I think that the sentences are appropriate…A message has to be sent very clearly to media practitioners, social commentators and lawyers like myself who don’t\u00a0want to understand the meaning of the judicial process so that red lines are drawn and once you cross them, you come within the firing line and you’ll be fired,” Ndebugri said on the Citi Breakfast Show.<\/strong><\/p>\n “They have been properly dealt with and I think we should let them serve the four months, pay the fine and come out so that we all learn lessons.”<\/p>\n “Sir John’s case was different”<\/strong><\/p>\n Several supporters of the jailed trio reference a case during the 2012 election petition, when then General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, was dragged before the Supreme Court for making unsavoury comments about one of the justices.<\/p>\n They argue that as ‘Sir John’ as he is popularly known, was only\u00a0fined and allowed to go free, the same courtesy should have been extended to the Montie FM trio.<\/p>\n However, John Ndebugri, dismissed these suggestions, stating that \u00a0each case was different and that Sir John, unlike the convicted Montie FM panelists, had not threatened to kill any judge.<\/p>\n “Matters are determined on a case by case basis. Sir John’s matter was totally different. He called a judge names. He didn’t say he\u00a0would kill him. These people [jailed Montie FM men]\u00a0went\u00a0to the extreme. There’s no question of equalization,” he said.<\/p>\n He stated that the matter must be addressed devoid of political sentiments as it involved the security of the members of one of the country’s most important institutions.<\/p>\n “I don’t talk from a standpoint of partisanship because some of us are now beyond that. We are very concerned about the stability of this nation so that when we die, we’ll be seen properly. The business of equalisation has no business here. These chaps sat on a radio station and spewed out these words against a very important institution.”<\/p>\n