Alhassan Suhuyini, the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, has stated that the ruling of the High Court dismissing all four applications filed by the accused persons in the ongoing ambulance purchase trial was politically correct but not judicially correct.
According to Suhuyini, there was clear misconduct on the part of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame Yeboah that, if assessed carefully required an order and not advice from the judge.
The trial judge, Justice Efia Serwah Asare-Botwey, dismissed the application for a mistrial and two others, filed by the lawyers of the first accused, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.
She also said the audio tape presented by the third accused did not reveal any instruction from Godfred Dame for Mr. Jakpa to implicate Ato Forson.
However, Justice Asare-Botwey advised Attorney-General Godfred Dame to recuse him from the ongoing case in the interest of justice and the public.
Also, the trial judge, in her judgment, held the view that “there is no legal basis for a court in the course of criminal proceedings to order an inquiry into the conduct of a prosecutor. There may be another forum for such an exercise but these criminal proceedings cannot accommodate it.”
But the Tamale North lawmaker, speaking to Alfred Ocansey on The Key Points on Saturday, stressed his disagreement with the trial judge on the basis for dismissing the applications.
He further criticized the Attorney-General for considering the court’s ruling as a vindication, emphasizing that the court admitted the leaked audio as material evidence, which the A-G’s office had previously denied any knowledge of engaging the third accused to implicate the first accused, Dr Ato Forson.
“The ruling in my view, my understanding, commonsensical view, is that the judge was simply saying that it is not within my jurisdiction to determine if you misconducted yourself or not, but then goes ahead to offer advice for him [A-G] to recuse himself from the case.
“Any thoughtful and reflective person in the shoe of the Attorney-General will not consider a statement like that as victory… she made the point strongly that I strongly advised that you recuse yourself and then went ahead to accept the tape into evidence. A tape that you, the A-G did not want the judge to accept because you said it was inadmissible.”
“I’m saying that any reflective and thoughtful in the shoes of the A-G given this circumstance will not go singing victory song the way he did, it was most immature, it was most scandalous and very shameful,” Suhuyini said.
A-G interfered with third accused?
Moreover, the NDC MP maintained that the A-G inferred with the third accused Richard Jakpa when Mr Dame urged Jakpa to secure a medical excuse duty to adjourn proceedings until the return of the A-G.
“Richard Jakpa used it [bench warrant] to tell the A-G that I am afraid to fake a medical report and yet the judge said there is no interference in the case. I’m surprised.
“For the judge admitting and stating that an impression can be created that cases before the court are discussed or coaching done at other places, for that admission alone, I thought that the judge could have concluded that it amounts to interference.”
“But for her to say all of that and conclude that there was no interference… the judge [Justice] Efia Serwah, was too careful; I think she was being politically correct… she was simply being politically correct and not judicially correct,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General addressing journalists after the court’s ruling indicated that he was “conducting the case,” ignoring the advice of the trial judge.
Source: 3news.com
