AN ACCRA High Court yesterday freed, Sacut Amenag-Etengo, a freelance journalist who was remanded for filming the proceedings of the court without permission.
The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, despite seeing very offensive comments about her on the suspect’s phone, which she said had bruised her ego, decided to discharge him following pleas by his lawyers.
Sacut was remanded by the court after it came to its attention that he had videoed the court’s proceedings without permission after an altercation between him and operatives of the National Security drew the court’s attention to loud noises on the corridors of the court.
The court remanded him and ordered the National Security to access his phone and conduct any investigation as to the content on the phone in order to ascertain his motive and whether or not he has any intention to commit any crime.
Appearing before the court yesterday, his counsel, Victor Adawudu indicated that the suspect has never been to court before in his practice as a journalist and was not aware that it was not allowed to make comment on the proceedings or take photographs.
He said the suspect was not in the court to do anything to put the court or its users in danger, adding that “it is to note also that the young man has never had brush with the law and this is his first time of having some kind of brush with the law.”
He, therefore, prayed the court to discharge him to go and sin no more, adding that “We believe that he has learnt his lesson by going through this process of incarceration since Thursday.”
Justice Marfo, upon receiving the report of the National Security on the investigations conducted on the suspect’s phone, said she had wanted to Sacut to read a little bit of what he had said on his WhatsApp page against her as a person but she will not let him do so out of the respect she has for the lawyers.
The judge however read portions of the WhatsApp conversation in which Sacut indicated that “Judge is clearly against the state prosecutor”, “but she is biased against the foreigners”, “She is using the fact that they are foreigners”, and “hopefully she does not oppose bail application”.
He then boldly described the judge as “she is a small girl”; “she is a bitch”, and further indicated that “she is granting bail”, “she also refuses them bail, of course on the basis of being foreigners”, among others.
Justice Marfo, in her ruling, held that, “I have not cited Sacut for any contempt of the court. I have no desire to do so although he has bruised my ego. I will hereby discharge him to go out of my court as a free man.”
The court has granted the National Security up to five days within which they can obtain a court order to do any further investigations they intend to conduct on his mobile phone after which they are to return it to him.
Meanwhile, the suspect has been re-arrested by officers of National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) for investigations.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak