A law lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kofi Abotsi, says government has very few options in the case of the Court of Appeal ruling that freed two men convicted for drug trafficking.

Mr Abotsi believes government has very little to stand on especially since it has no fresh evidence.

His comments follow Attorney General and Justice Minister, Betty Mould Iddrisu’s disclosure to Joy News that she would be meeting with police prosecutors Monday to examine the possibility of appealing the Court ruling which quashed the earlier ruling by a Fast Track High Court and ordered the immediate release of Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Alhaji Issah Abass.

The two men, who served 19 months out of a 15-year jail term, were reunited with their families after their release from prison on Saturday.

Mrs Mould Iddrisu said the meeting with the police prosecutors would examine available options and possibly decide on the next line of action.

But Mr Abotsi insists government’s only real option would be to appeal the latest ruling.

“If they do assess the judgement generally and … they have a problem with the technical basis of the acquittal, then their option will be to appeal…to the Supreme Court, in which case if the Supreme Court overturns the Court of Appeal decision, the earlier verdict of the High Court would be restored and the accused persons could be sent back to jail.

“On the other hand, if they assess and they think that the judgement is generally acceptable within their technical assessment then what it means pretty much is that the options left are very few,” he told Joy News’ Araba Koomson.

“The court will clearly lean towards the innocent and therefore where there is an acquittal – at least at this stage, in terms of re-opening the case [and] going through all the trial afresh – it’s quite exceptional and the court will hardly do that.”

Justice delivered?

The release of Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass has certainly generated controversial discussions in various circles in the country and the question that has often come up is whether the court of Appeal’s ruling was fair or otherwise.

Speaking in an interview with Joy News early on Monday, a security expert at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, Kwesi Aning, said the verdict is a “setback in terms of the investigation and the prosecutorial process.”

“This shows that certainly there are serious weaknesses in Ghana’s ability to deal with drug investigations.

He insisted government needs to establish “a bi-partisan parliamentary or national commission to examine all high profile narcotic drug cases.”

“We would need to improve our ability to ensure that we present ‘water-tight’ cases to the courts so that there are no loopholes,” he stressed.


Source: Araba Koomson/Fiifi Koomson/Ghana