NCA Case: Supreme Court to Rule on Defence Request 

Supreme Court, Ghana

Accra, April 24, 2018//-Ghana’s Supreme Court has set June 7, 2018,  to deliver its ruling on whether the Attorney-General is required by law to furnish defense lawyers with all documents including those the A-G may not use during trial. 

This followed the request by defence counsels for the Court to order the State to furnish them with documents and other relevant materials they wish to rely on in the trial.

This thorny matter has forced two high profile cases, one being the trial of former COCOBOD CEO Dr. Stephen Opuni at an Accra High court to be put on hold as the AG and defense lawyers could not agree on which documents should be made available.

The trial of former National Communication Authority (NCA) Board Chairman and four others charged with causing financial loss to the state also suffered the same fate due to the wait for the Apex court’s decision.

They are Eugene Baffuor-Bonnie, Board Chairman; George Derrick Oppong, a Director of Infralock Development Limited (IDL); William Tetteh Tevie, the former Director General, and Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former Board Member.

The five persons are facing trial over a four million dollar Cyber Security Surveillance equipment.

JoyNews’ Joseph Ackah Blay reports, while the defense legal team had argued Article 19 of the constitution allowed an accused person to be afforded all facilities to put up his defense (including the list of witnesses and all relevant documents to be used and not used by prosecutors), the Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo argued that was not the case.

Presiding Judge Justice William Atuguba on Tuesday afforded the lawyers the chance to canvass arguments to support their case.

They all opted to rely on written submissions already filed before the court.

Mjoyonline 

 

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