Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said that the trial judge in the ambulance case, Justice Efia Serwah Asare-Botwey, could have relied on authorities from the United Kingdom and the United States to rule on the application for a mistrial.
He indicated that it was open to the judge to bring finality to this matter by citing these authorities.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Thursday, June 6 in relation to the dismissal of the application, Kpebu said “It was open to the judge to bring this case to an end on the authorities that I have seen. When I say the authorities, we are talking about UK, the US, some of them, even a common lie by a prosecution witness or the prosecutor just suppressing some evidence, that is to say, not bringing out the evidence, then the whole trial is stopped. Soo many of them, but do you know where the problem came from? The judge handicapped herself from receiving such arguments from the defense lawyers.
“There was a huge mistake, this area of the law is new so it shouldn’t be taken for granted that we all know it so we should just leave it there and that the judge alone can do the work, no. The judge needed to listen to the arguments of the lawyers, once she listened to the arguments then she would blend with hers, naturally the outcome would have been better than the situation where she alone took her case.”
Ambulance trial: The judge made a grave mistake; he should have listened to both sides before giving a ruling. – Martin Kpebu, Private Legal Practitioner#GhanaTonight pic.twitter.com/6yCUumbIah
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) June 7, 2024
However, another legal practitioner Justice Abdulai said the application for mistrial filed by Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and the third accused in the ambulance case Richard Jakpa was going to be difficult for them to argue in court.
He explained that Ghana does not have any precedence for a mistrial for which the applicants could have relied to make their case.
“For the applicants, I believe that the fight continues. Let us all remember that the applicants might have lost the motion but they succeeded in one significant thing that even the A-G is displeased with.
“It tells you, the applicants in reality actually won the biggest battle in this whole enterprise considering that what they sought to do was to ensure that the tape goes into evidence. Part of the application was for the applicants to be cross-examined and this part of the cross-examination was to ensure that either the transcript or the actual tape gets admitted and they had a difficult task of doing this.
“Thanks to God they succeeded in doing just exactly that, they achieved that part of the objective. They might have lost the mistrial but really, the truth is that they went there knowing that that that was the most difficult part because as part of our criminal jurisprudence, we don’t have anything close to that unlike the US and other parts of the world where you could find this jurisprudence.,” the law lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School said on the News 360 on TV3 while reacting to the dismissal of the application for a mistrial.
Justice Efia Serwah Asare-Botwey dismissed the application for mistrial filed on Thursday, June 6.
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.
“Having listened to the conversation between [Richard Jakpa] and A-G, the allegation that A-G sought assistance to implicate [Ato Forson] was not borne out of the mouth of the A-G but [Richard Jakpa],” she said.
The judge after dismissing the application, however, advised Attorney-General Godfred Dame to recuse him from the ongoing case in the interest of justice and and the public.
Lawyers for the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson filed a supplementary affidavit in support of the motion on notice for an order of mistrial, injunction and or stay of proceedings in the ongoing ambulance case.
This followed the allegations made against Godfred Dame by Richard Jakpa.
The trending recording of a telephone conversation between Mr. Jakpa and the Attorney-General Godfred Dame, had been annexed to the affidavit.
Dr Ato Forson was requesting the honorable court to declare a mistrial in the interest of justice, which must not only be done but be manifestly seen to be done.
But Godfred Dame opposed the application for mistrial stating it was unknown in the laws of Ghana.
“That no proper grounds have been canvassed by the applicant to warrant a grant of this application, which is unknown to the laws governing criminal law and practice in Ghana.
“That the instant application is a smokescreen and a veiled attempt by the applicant to abort his legitimate prosecution for actions committed as a public officer which led to the State losing colossal amounts of funds. Same is incompetent as no one has immunity from prosecution under the laws of Ghana.
“That I respectfully say that the Attorney-General is vested with the constitutional responsibility to prosecute all crimes within the Republic and cannot be prohibited from discharging this constitutional duty in respect of any person in Ghana as all persons are equal before the law,” he said in his affidavit in opposition to the motion filed by Ato Forson.
Source: 3news.com
