Tagor and Abass to apply for bail
Gilbert Boyefio
15/02/2007
Kwabena Amaning alias "Tagor" Counsel for Kwabena "Tagor? Amaning and Alhaji Issah Abass have given notice to file for a formal bail application Friday, after their oral application was refused and the judge advised them to make a representation in writing ?if you so wish.?
The defence lawyers, the defendants themselves and their friends and family members could not hide their frustrations when once again the state failed to present a witness, forcing a third such adjournment this year for the same reason..
Getrude Aikins, for the prosecution, said their expected witness could not get into the country and therefore asked for a week's adjournment until 21st February. ?My lord, at the last date we requested for an adjournment because we were expecting some witnesses but unfortunately they are out of your jurisdiction. We are therefore requesting for an adjournment to next week, February 21 and 22.?
?We"ve got a firm date? from the witnesses she told the court, asking for a month?s adjournment after next week?s planned hearing to March 26, a request that was not entertained.
But this time counsel for the accused persons were not willing to just accept it. ?M?Lord, we?ve accommodated the state for far too long,? said Ellis Owusu-Fordjour for the first accused, Tagor. The lead counsel for Tagor, Mr Owusu-Fordjour, who was in court with Nana Asante Bediatuo and Asare Otchere-Darko, said, ?My Lord, this is a Fast Track Court, and the accused persons have been in custody since August 2. They have been in and out of police and prison custody on eight occasions.? This, he said, amounted to ?physical and mental torture.?
He reminded the court that the prosecution said they had 10 witnesses all together and had so far presented five of them, whose evidence threw very little light on the charges against the two men. ?These charges cannot be proved by the prosecution,? he said, flipping the charge sheet dismissively at the court.
The trial judge, Justice Jones Dotse (normally of the Appeal Court), asked counsel for the accused persons to bring a written application for bail at the next hearing.
Since the commencement of this drugs trial on November 27, 2006, prosecution has consistently struggled to muster its promised witnesses, resulting in a lot of disappointments and adjournments.
Mr Owusu-Fordjour said although the accused persons are presumed innocent until proven otherwise the treatment being meted out to them on remand custody was traumatising.
He told the court that when he visited his client at the Police Hospital recently, where he had been admitted overnight, he was handcuffed and surrounded by two policemen with assault riffles, each carrying 24 bullets.
?We have heard five witnesses from the prosecution who cannot even prove anything,? he added.
On his part, Osafo Buabeng, lead counsel for Alhaji Issah Abass, described the charges as ?bad law?. He said he thought with the trend of events the prosecution would withdraw the charges preferred against the accused persons.
He expressed displeasure at the way and manner the accused persons are brought to prison by the police, armed to the teeth, and compared that scenario to that of a treason trial. He complained to the court that the police sent his client to the Police Headquarters for his picture to be taken, indicating that though the case is on trial police investigations are still continuing.
Ms Aikins rejected this, saying investigations have indeed been completed and that the accused should be taken from CID cells to prison custody, a request the court granted.
Nana Asante Bediatuo drew the court?s attention to the mode of investigation going on. He said the charges preferred against the accused persons are different from the original charges. According to him, the integrity of the accused persons should be protected.
He reminded the court that the so-called investigator of the case who came as a witness admitted that he was pulled off the case after a few days and that indeed he was investigating not the case before the court but another matter under which charges were first preferred and then dropped, the MV Benjamin case.
Ms Gertrude Aikins however pointed out to the court that the accused persons have been charged with specific offences and if the prosecution cannot prove them, then the accused persons walk away freely.
At the commencement of the trial in November 27, 2006, Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for Tagor, applied for bail for his client citing Article 14(1) of the 1992 Constitution which he said, grants the accused persons the right to bail.
He said Tagor qualifies for bail because he has a fixed abode, a steady job and people to stand surety for him.
According to him, his client would not interfere with the case if granted bail, saying ?the police themselves will bear witness to his cooperation with them.?
Nana Bediatuo told the court that the circuit court had on several occasions refused his client bail in the last four months. He said that unless the prosecution has any proper case against the accused person, the proper thing is to grant them bail.
At yesterday?s trial, the court was once again informed of the investigator?s inability to provide the needed medical attention to the accused persons. The court was told that Tagor was unofficially discharged when he attended the hospital for medical care because the Police did not heed the advice of the doctor who was treating him.
?Dr Agbenu told the police that the accused person cannot be discharged, but the police brought another doctor to discharge him?, the court heard.
At this point the trial judge, Justice Jones Dotse, asked that counsel bring an official note from the said doctor to that effect for the court to act upon it. He further ordered the investigator to ensure that the accused persons are given the necessary medical attention at all times.
The case was adjourned to February 21, 2007, at the insistence of the prosecution.
15/02/2007
Kwabena Amaning alias "Tagor" Counsel for Kwabena "Tagor? Amaning and Alhaji Issah Abass have given notice to file for a formal bail application Friday, after their oral application was refused and the judge advised them to make a representation in writing ?if you so wish.?
The defence lawyers, the defendants themselves and their friends and family members could not hide their frustrations when once again the state failed to present a witness, forcing a third such adjournment this year for the same reason..
Getrude Aikins, for the prosecution, said their expected witness could not get into the country and therefore asked for a week's adjournment until 21st February. ?My lord, at the last date we requested for an adjournment because we were expecting some witnesses but unfortunately they are out of your jurisdiction. We are therefore requesting for an adjournment to next week, February 21 and 22.?
?We"ve got a firm date? from the witnesses she told the court, asking for a month?s adjournment after next week?s planned hearing to March 26, a request that was not entertained.
But this time counsel for the accused persons were not willing to just accept it. ?M?Lord, we?ve accommodated the state for far too long,? said Ellis Owusu-Fordjour for the first accused, Tagor. The lead counsel for Tagor, Mr Owusu-Fordjour, who was in court with Nana Asante Bediatuo and Asare Otchere-Darko, said, ?My Lord, this is a Fast Track Court, and the accused persons have been in custody since August 2. They have been in and out of police and prison custody on eight occasions.? This, he said, amounted to ?physical and mental torture.?
He reminded the court that the prosecution said they had 10 witnesses all together and had so far presented five of them, whose evidence threw very little light on the charges against the two men. ?These charges cannot be proved by the prosecution,? he said, flipping the charge sheet dismissively at the court.
The trial judge, Justice Jones Dotse (normally of the Appeal Court), asked counsel for the accused persons to bring a written application for bail at the next hearing.
Since the commencement of this drugs trial on November 27, 2006, prosecution has consistently struggled to muster its promised witnesses, resulting in a lot of disappointments and adjournments.
Mr Owusu-Fordjour said although the accused persons are presumed innocent until proven otherwise the treatment being meted out to them on remand custody was traumatising.
He told the court that when he visited his client at the Police Hospital recently, where he had been admitted overnight, he was handcuffed and surrounded by two policemen with assault riffles, each carrying 24 bullets.
?We have heard five witnesses from the prosecution who cannot even prove anything,? he added.
On his part, Osafo Buabeng, lead counsel for Alhaji Issah Abass, described the charges as ?bad law?. He said he thought with the trend of events the prosecution would withdraw the charges preferred against the accused persons.
He expressed displeasure at the way and manner the accused persons are brought to prison by the police, armed to the teeth, and compared that scenario to that of a treason trial. He complained to the court that the police sent his client to the Police Headquarters for his picture to be taken, indicating that though the case is on trial police investigations are still continuing.
Ms Aikins rejected this, saying investigations have indeed been completed and that the accused should be taken from CID cells to prison custody, a request the court granted.
Nana Asante Bediatuo drew the court?s attention to the mode of investigation going on. He said the charges preferred against the accused persons are different from the original charges. According to him, the integrity of the accused persons should be protected.
He reminded the court that the so-called investigator of the case who came as a witness admitted that he was pulled off the case after a few days and that indeed he was investigating not the case before the court but another matter under which charges were first preferred and then dropped, the MV Benjamin case.
Ms Gertrude Aikins however pointed out to the court that the accused persons have been charged with specific offences and if the prosecution cannot prove them, then the accused persons walk away freely.
At the commencement of the trial in November 27, 2006, Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for Tagor, applied for bail for his client citing Article 14(1) of the 1992 Constitution which he said, grants the accused persons the right to bail.
He said Tagor qualifies for bail because he has a fixed abode, a steady job and people to stand surety for him.
According to him, his client would not interfere with the case if granted bail, saying ?the police themselves will bear witness to his cooperation with them.?
Nana Bediatuo told the court that the circuit court had on several occasions refused his client bail in the last four months. He said that unless the prosecution has any proper case against the accused person, the proper thing is to grant them bail.
At yesterday?s trial, the court was once again informed of the investigator?s inability to provide the needed medical attention to the accused persons. The court was told that Tagor was unofficially discharged when he attended the hospital for medical care because the Police did not heed the advice of the doctor who was treating him.
?Dr Agbenu told the police that the accused person cannot be discharged, but the police brought another doctor to discharge him?, the court heard.
At this point the trial judge, Justice Jones Dotse, asked that counsel bring an official note from the said doctor to that effect for the court to act upon it. He further ordered the investigator to ensure that the accused persons are given the necessary medical attention at all times.
The case was adjourned to February 21, 2007, at the insistence of the prosecution.
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