An Accra High Court has increased the jail term of two convicts from 10 years to 15 years’ imprisonment in hard labour for abetment to robbery.
Hamza Salou and Mohammed Salou were found guilty and convicted by an Accra Circuit Court on February 13, 2018, for abetting two others to rob a forex bureau operator of an amount of GH¢390,000.
The complainant in a struggle with the convicts at the time of the robbery was shot in the thigh four times and sustained injuries.
However, they were not able to bolt with their booties as the timely intervention of police officers saved the situation. They engaged the armed robbers in a shootout and one of them was hit by a pellet in the stomach.
The convict who sustained bullet injury pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery and was subsequently convicted on his own plea and sentenced accordingly.
However, Hamza Salou and Mohammed Salou denied the charges and had to go through a full trial. They were found guilty at the end of the trial and each sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in hard labour.
Six months after their sentencing, their lawyer filed an appeal at the High Court challenging the decision of the Circuit Court, saying the judgment and conviction is unreasonable and cannot be supported with regard to the evidence.
The lawyer also averred that the failure of the judge to appreciate that the convicts’ defence was reasonably probable, amounted to miscarriage of justice.
He therefore prayed the court to set aside the decision of the Circuit Court.
After listening to the lawyer’s argument and analysing the evidence as well as the judgment of the circuit court, a criminal division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Abdullah Iddrisu dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
He said the trial court did not fail to appreciate the convicts’ defence as it considered their defence and took its decision based on the evidence before it which is not different from what his court had found.
On the jail term handed the convicts, Justice Iddrisu held that the 10 years pronounced was not the minimum sentence as provided by the law considering the fact that the robbers used a pistol.
He therefore substituted the sentence of 10 years with 15 years’ imprisonment in hard labour which is the minimum for robbery.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak