Ato Forson trial: high court to deliver ruling on mistrial application on 6 June

The high court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, has set Thursday 6 June 2024 as the date to deliver its rulings on multiple applications filed by the accused persons in the case of the Republic versus Cassiel Ato Forson, Sylvester Anemana (discharged) and Richard Jakpa.

Lawyers for the two remaining accused, Richard Jakpa and Cassiel Ato Forson, filed their applications in the ongoing criminal trial on Tuesday 28 May and Thursday 30 May 2024, separately.

Richard Jakpa is essentially asking the court to order that the charges against him be dropped, while Ato Forson is praying the court for an order of mistrial.

When the court constituted today (Tuesday 4 June 2024), Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting with additional responsibility as a high court judge, enquired from the parties in the case (the state, on the one hand, and lawyers for the two accused, Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa, on the other) whether or not they have all been served with filed processes before the court.

All the parties declared in court that they have been served with all processes from each other. The court subsequently directed that it would rely on the processes filed to determine the applications before it.

However, the court indicated that it will take oral submissions on an objection raised by Lawyer Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Jakpa, the third accused.

Objection to AG’s affidavits

In his argument, Thaddeus Sory objected to the affidavit in opposition filed by the Attorney General.

He contended that the state attorney who deposed to the affidavit failed to disclose the source of the information he provided in the affidavit, because he was not present when the supposed conversation between the Attorney General and the third accused person, Richard Jakpa, took place.

To this end, Thaddeus Sory argued that the affidavit deposed to by a principal state attorney amounts to hearsay. It contained matters which were not in his knowledge, Sory said, and therefore, to him, as the legal representative for the third accused, the affidavits in opposition to his application should be inadmissible because the deponent was not present when the related conversations took place.

AG’s rebuttal

In a sharp rebuttal, Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame argued in open court that the objection by the lawyer for the third accused was unfounded and without merit.

The Attorney General said it is not at all accurate for Thaddeus Sory to state that the deponent of the affidavit did not disclose the source of his information.

“I refer to paragraph one on the affidavit in opposition which states that ‘I am the deponent hereto and have the authority of the Attorney General to depose to this affidavit, the facts of which have come to my knowledge in the course of my work.’ This defeats the argument of my learned friend and his claim should not be entertained by this court,” the Attorney General said in court.

“The authorities that my learned friend intends to rely on are totally irrelevant and again, Constitutional Instrument (CI) 47, which is High Court (Civil Procedures) Rules 2004, which my learned friend quotes from to support his argument, can simply not be applied in this case because it is a criminal matter.

“I submit that the notice of objection to the proceedings before this court is offensive and it ought not to be entertained,” the AG added.

By court

Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe’s court, after hearing the arguments of the lawyer for the third accused person and the Attorney General, ruled that it would deliver a reasoned ruling on all applications duly filed before it on Thursday (6 June 2024).

The court announced that there are four applications in total on which it will be delivering a ruling.

Righteousness will prevail over evil

In a brief statement to journalists after the court sitting, Attorney General Dame said both of the accused persons – Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa – are resorting to tricks and entrapments essentially to delay the trial, but this will not work.

“All I can say is that the Lord does not delight in the pleasure of the wicked and that even though they have laid traps for me, I will flee from them and righteousness will always prevail over evil,” Attorney General Dame said.

Jakpa’s claims

The lawyer for the first accused, Cassiel Ato Forson, is Abdul Baasit Aziz Bamba.

In his application, Lawyer Bamba is asking the court to order an inquiry into the conduct of the Attorney General, an order of mistrial in the ongoing criminal case, an order of injunction to restrain the prosecution from any further prosecution of his client pending the determination of the applicant’s motion for mistrial and/or an order for stay of proceedings in the ongoing trial.

Contention by Ato Forson

On the other hand, Thaddeus Sory, the lawyer for the third accused person. is seeking the court to strike out the charges preferred against his client and to terminate the proceedings against him, or, alternatively, a stay of the proceedings before the court against his client, Richard Jakpa.

These two applications are essentially based on claims, made by the third accused during the court’s sitting on Thursday 23 May 2024, that Attorney General Dame has “on several occasions had meetings with him privately at odd hours both in person and on the phone in respect of this case to co-operate or answer questions in a manner that will make his case better against the first accused person”.

Response to first accused

However, Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame, in his affidavits in opposition filed in response to the applications by Ato Forson and Jakpa, notes that in the motion of the first accused person “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”.

“The instant application [by the first accused] 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,” the Attorney General’s affidavits in opposition read.

“It is totally untenable for the applicant to be let off the hook on account of fabricated allegations by the third accused person aimed at assisting the applicant to gain unwarranted advantage in this trial.

“The integrity of the proceedings before this court remains intact as the proceedings of the court have been conducted in open court, with all parties given the opportunity to test the evidence given for and against them in court in accordance with the common law tradition,” the AG’s affidavits further read.

Reply to third accused

The Attorney General, in response to the application of the third accused person, states that: “Even though the applicant (Richard Jakpa) levels many untrue and wild allegations against the Attorney General in his affidavit in support, none of them attacked the integrity of the court or question any decision or action by the trial court which impedes the capacity of the court to administer justice in this case.

“The attempt by counsel for the applicant to mislead the court into thinking that they were not aware of the mischief of the third accused before the proceedings of 23 May 2024, only highlights the manipulation of facts and untruths the entire application is laced with,” the affidavits in opposition, deposed to by a principal state attorney at the Attorney General’s Department, read.

“On the contrary, the Attorney General has proven to be an honest, strong and effective prosecutor who has refused to yield to the untold pressure the applicant himself has brought on him to subvert the ends of justice by withdrawing the charges against him.

“Wherefore, I swear to this affidavit in opposition to the application as frivolous, vexatious and a complete waste of this court’s time,” the affidavit further says.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra