By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Feb. 12, GNA – Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has defended his decision to discontinue some high profile criminal cases against some known National Democratic Congress(NDC) members.
He said the three reasons for the termination of those criminal trials were ethical and professional and that he could not in good conscience continue to prosecute some of the cases.
Dr Ayine was speaking at a press conference on the justifications for dropping charges in certain criminal prosecutions.
He said before taking those decisions, he had consulted widely and had several briefings from the Director of Public Prosecutions on each of the cases.
He said he had also spoken to the defense lawyers in each case and some of the investigators involved in the cases.
He said that for ethical and professional reasons, “I could not in good conscience continue to exercise my prosecutorial authority under article 88(3) in some of the cases.
These cases were the Republic v. Cassiel Ato Forson & Another and Republic v. Ofosu Ampofo & Another.”
He also said he was deeply involved as counsel in these two cases.
The AG said in the case of Republic v. Ato Forson, he was not counsel of record but his junior partner, Godwin Kudzo Tameklo was and as a team, they discussed their case strategy in chambers, and he was involved in reviewing legal arguments and in some instances, authoring some of the arguments that they filed.
“I believed then and still believe now that the Ato Forson is the victim of a political witch-hunt and that he had no case to answer in that trial,” he added.
Dr Ayine said the position was vindicated by the erudite judgment of the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the Trial Court erred in calling upon the accused persons to mount their defense.
He said when the then Attorney General vowed to file an appeal and actually went ahead to do so, he took the view that it was done to save face because there was not a scintilla of merit to his appeal.
“Indeed, the appeal was, to say the least, incompetent,” he said.
He said his involvement in the case of Republic v. Ofosu Ampofo & Another was a matter of public record.
Dr Ayine said at the initial stages of the trial, he was on record as counsel with the Tony Lithur and Marietta Brew.
He said it was their position as a team that the charges against the Ofosu Ampofo were trumped up and motivated purely by politics, and he still stood by that view.
“Ethically, a prosecutor should and must have the courage of his convictions and must remain fearless to stand by those convictions even in the face of a severe storm of public criticism,” he added.
He said strident criticism should not be a reason why a self-respecting prosecutor must abandon his professional convictions in favour of political praise.
“So, I am owning up to stand by the professional decision I took that in my current position as AG, and the prosecutor for that matter, I was not going to suddenly recant my position and continue to prosecute the accused persons in the two cases,” he said.
The AG said no new evidence had been presented to him upon assumption of office as AG to cause him to abandon his professional convictions.
The AG said for some of the cases, his own review and analysis of the charges showed clearly that the charges were defective, and some were filed against the promptings of plain commonsense.
“In some of the cases, the evidence led so far showed that there was reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused persons and no prosecutor should continue to pursue a case in the face of overwhelming doubt regarding the guilt of the accused,” he added.
He said it was important to highlight the fact that in most of the cases in which he had terminated proceedings, the conduct of some of the individual judges left much to be desired.
He said in the case of the Republic v. Collins Dauda & Others, for instance, the first accused was charged with misapplying public funds in the sum of US$200m.
He said the prosecution failed and / or neglected to take account of the basic fact that it was part of that US$200m that was used to construct the houses at Saglemi.
Dr Ayine said in other words, the value of that built environment was, in his considered opinion, a key determinant of how much of the total sum was allegedly misapplied by Collins Dauda and discounting the value of the built environment rendered the charge defective.
GNA