Accra, March 2, GNA – An Accra High Court has discharged Mr Sacut Dennis Amenga-Etego, a Freelance Journalist, arrested on the orders of the Court for filming and/or videoing the proceedings without authority.
The National Investigation Bureau (NIB) by the orders of the Court investigated and produced a report.
The Court presided over by Justice Mrs Lydia Osei Marfo said, “I have not cited Sacut for any contempt of the Court. I have no desire to do so although he has bruised my ego.”
The Judge said, “I will hereby discharge him to go out of my Court as a free man. I am very grateful to his lawyers as well for the respect they have given to this Court.”
Mrs Marfo said she would have caused the journalist to read a little bit of what he had said on his WhatsApp page against her as a person but for the respect, she has for her learned friends, who have come on his behalf, “I will not let him read it.”
She, however, wanted to capture an excerpt of it herself and in one chat he said, “Judge is clearly against the state prosecutor.”
She said in another, he went like, “but she is biased against the foreigners” and then he went ahead to say, “she is using the fact that they are foreigners.”
The journalist also wrote “hopefully she does not oppose bail application” and then another, the judge said which she finds as interesting was “she is a small girl.”
Mrs Marfo said the journalist also continue to write that “she is granting bail”, “she also refuses them bail, of course on the basis of being foreigners”, “she is a bitch”, among others.
The judge said there was some concern raised by the NIB officials and that was to allow them to continue to have custody of the phone on which the offensive conversations were taken and some other device belonging to the journalist in question and to compel him to also give them the password to conduct further investigations as well.
She said for the exercise, “we are doing today, I am unable to grant the request, however, the investigators know the right process to have these gadgets investigated.
In the interim, however, those phones can be kept for the next five days after which if they have not approached any Court for an order to extract information thereon, the same should be given back to the owner.
Mr Victor Kwadjoga Adawudu, led by Mr Aboagye Debrah, said it was their humble plea before the Court that “as the good Lord has taught us to end our prayers is that ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
He said this was a young man, who has been practising in Journalism and had never been to Court before to practice his profession.
The Lawyer said he was not aware that “you cannot come to Court and as the proceedings go on you make comment on the proceedings and even take photographs.”
“Genuinely, he is not here to do anything to put this Court or the users of the Court in danger,” he added.
He said the young man had never had a brush with the law and this was his first time having a challenge with the law.
The Lawyer said he was sure the journalist was misled to believe that since Court proceedings were always in the public domain and the information was also in the public domain, anything could be done by maybe making comments and taking notes.
“We believe that he has learnt his lesson by going through this process of incarceration since Thursday. We humbly pray that you discharge us, that we go in peace and sin no more, “he added.
GNA