William Ato Essien
ANOTHER ATTEMPT by the embattled founder and Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, to stop his trial before an Accra High Court has once again failed.
The court yesterday dismissed an application filed by his lawyer to stay proceedings pending the determination of his appeal against the court admitting an audio recording into evidence.
The court on June 9, 2022, admitted into evidence an audio recording which captured a confrontation between Ato Essien and the Special Investigations Team during his interrogation as part of investigations.
The audio was tended by Rev. Fitzgerald Odonkor, one of the two persons standing trial alongside Ato Essien for allegedly stealing from the GH¢620 million given to the defunct bank by the Bank of Ghana as liquidity support.
Ato Essien is on trial with the defunct bank’s former Managing Director, Fitzgerald Odonkor, as well as Tetteh Nettey, a former Managing Director of MC Management Services owned by Mr. Essien, for conspiracy to steal and stealing charges.
Although counsel for the accused objected to the tendering of the recording, the court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge admitted it on ground that the audio was disclosed by the prosecution and all the lawyers in the mater had been served with copies of the audio recording.
Baffuor Gyau Bonsu Ashia, counsel for Ato Essien, yesterday told the court that they have filed an appeal against the court’s decision and have subsequently filed an application for stay of proceedings pending the determination of the appeal.
Moving the motion, Mr. Ashia argued that the motion raises serious legal issues to be determined at the appellate court.
He said the appeal has also raised special circumstances to warrant a grant of the application to stay the trial pending the determination of the appeal.
“The special circumstance in this instance is that the admission of the pen drive which contains the audio recording of the confrontation between the Special Investigation Team and the first accused person (Ato Essien) will injure the defence of the first accused person,” he added.
The application was opposed by Marina Appiah Opare, a Chief State Attorney who indicated that it has not demonstrated any special circumstances to warrant a stay of the trial.
Justice Kyei Baffour, in his ruling said a motion for stay of proceedings pending an appeal is a discretionary exercise of the inherent powers of a court, and it may be granted when the court is of the opinion that an applicant has demonstrated exceptional circumstances necessitating a trial court to stay its proceedings for a party to pursue an interlocutory appeal.
“Examining the nature of the application and the depositions contained in the affidavit in support and the attached exhibits leaves any serious court with only one choice that the application is nothing but frivolous, for exhibit 31 (audio recording) that has been admitted has nothing in it that suggests that the privacy of first accused was breached in any manner,” he stated.
He added that “the content shows that he was cautioned before he spoke and that he spoke in the presence of a lawyer and a state attorney. The claim that the interlocutory appeal raises serious issues of law cannot be correct. I dismiss the application as totally without merit.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak