{"id":288385,"date":"2017-01-26T13:33:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T13:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=288385"},"modified":"2017-01-26T13:33:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T13:33:52","slug":"wrongfully-jailed-12-years-for-defilement-teacher-freed-after-dna-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/01\/wrongfully-jailed-12-years-for-defilement-teacher-freed-after-dna-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrongfully jailed 12-years for defilement; teacher freed after DNA test"},"content":{"rendered":"
A teacher in the Northern Region, Eric Asante, who was jailed for fifteen years for allegedly defiling a 14-year old student in his class, has been acquitted and discharged by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
This was after a DNA test carried out on the baby believed to have come about as a result of the supposed defilement, proved that he was not the biological father.<\/p>\n
Eric Asante, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court in September 2015 based on good conduct after serving two-third of his jail-term, was found guilty on September 5, 2005, and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour by the Tamale High Court, for defiling one Rubamatu Mohammed.<\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court, ruling on an appeal he filed against his conviction, stated that the sentence of the teacher could not hold because there were a lot of inaccuracies in the evidence provided by the prosecution.<\/p>\n
Mr. Asante, who had always maintained his innocence, filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal on October 6, 2006, but it was dismissed.<\/p>\n
He then proceeded to the Supreme Court in 2012, where the court ordered for a DNA test to be conducted on the baby.<\/p>\n
The court order was served and received on Rubamatu’s behalf by her aunts, Juliet Tinjina and Gladys Abokokpa, who were then taking care of Rubamatu’s child in Tamale.<\/p>\n
Although the court gave them a period of eight-weeks within which the test should be conducted, the family refused to bring the child to Accra as ordered by the court.<\/p>\n
Not even the intervention of the Northern Regional Police Commander persuaded them to act on the orders of the court.<\/p>\n
Months after the order, the baby was finally brought to Accra for the test, with the results showing that the teacher was not the biological father of the baby.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court said Mr. Eric Asante would have to apply to the state for compensation. Renowned Humans Rights Lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, was the counsel for the teacher.<\/p>\n
–
\nBy: Fred Djabanor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A teacher in the Northern Region, Eric Asante, who was jailed for fifteen years for allegedly defiling a 14-year old student in his class, has been acquitted and discharged by the Supreme Court. This was after a DNA test carried out on the baby believed to have come about as a result of the supposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[1656,3474,3,3475,3476],"yoast_head":"\n