Attorney General authorised Delta 8 discharge - Lawyer

Europa

May 18, 2017 5:51 PM

The court discharged the eight due to lack of evidence to support the charges levelled against them.

Attorney General Gloria Akufo

Mathew Appiah, the lawyer for the released eight members of the vigilante group, the Delta Force has cast doubts over claims by the Information Ministry that the Attorney General was not aware of the circumstances leading to their discharge.

A Kumasi Circuit court presided over by Her Honour, Patricia Amponsah was forced to discharge the accused persons who allegedly aided the escape of 13 of their colleagues standing trial for assaulting the president’s Security Coordinator for the Ashanti region.

Explaining the decision the prosecutor, ACP Okyere Darko, said there was not enough evidence to support the charges levelled against the accused persons. He added that he had orders from the Attorney General Gloria Akufo to drop the charges against them.

But many Ghanaians have expressed anger with the development, with the Minority Leader of parliament Haruna Iddrisu describing the move as a travesty of justice.

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice subsequently said that it is not privy to the decision to drop charges against the eight members of a pro-NPP vigilante group.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Ministry of Information.

The statement argued that that the Principal State Attorney in the case did not consult the Attorney General before dropping the charges against the accused.

But speaking to Accra-based Starr FM, Lawyer Appiah said he does not believe that the Attorney General had no knowledge that the case has been dropped.

He, however, said that “we will wait for the Attorney General herself to come out because the law is that the chief State Attorney in the Ashanti region is a representative of the Attorney General in Accra. And the Chief State Attorney takes decisions on behalf of the Attorney General in Accra and that decision is binding on the Attorney General.

“So nobody can sit anywhere and take a decision that they are going to conduct any fresh investigations. As far as we are concerned this is conclusive and the advice has come. If there is any such thing…the Attorney General should come out and say that she has not authorized it.

“But she authorized it. What I am saying is that by law she has authorized it because…at the end of the day the person who advised is her representatives and therefore she is bound by that decision. So if anybody says it is the contrary, we presumed that it is a regular act. Let them bring it and we will see what will happen,” he added.

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