James Gyakye Quayson
The trial of embattled Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, yesterday resumed before an Accra High Court with his counsel continuing with the cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness, Richard Takyi-Mensah.
The trial resumed after Justice Mary Yanzuh, the presiding judge dismissed an oral application by Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for Mr. Quayson, which asked the court to indefinitely adjourn the case to allow the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal to deal with two separate applications before the courts.
The application at the Supreme Court is asking for certiorari quashing the decision of the court made on June 16, 2023, not to order the prosecution to disclose certain documents because they said they do not have them.
The same application is also asking the Apex Court to prohibit the trial judge from further hearing the case until the prosecution provides the accused person with all disclosures to aid them with their case.
The application, filed at the Court of Appeal, is a repeat application for stay of proceedings pending the determination of an appeal challenging the decision of the trial court to hear his case on daily basis.
Mr. Quayson has been charged, among others, for deceiving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by making a false statement that he did not have a dual citizenship in order to acquire a Ghanaian passport.
He has been charged with five counts of deceit of public officer, forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory statement, perjury and false declaration of office.
Mr. Tsikata had asked the court to stay proceedings and await the decisions of those two courts, indicating that the court had found it proper to stay proceedings when similar applications were filed in the past.
The oral application was opposed by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who argued that there is no rule of law or practice requiring a court to stay proceedings simply because a certiorari application has been filed at the Supreme Court.
Justice Yanzuh, in her ruling, held that the motion filed at the Supreme Court does not fall under the ambit of Article 130:2 which relates to the court staying proceedings and referring a question of law to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
She said it is proper to continue with the trial until there is an order for the court to stay proceeding, notwithstanding the pendency of the motion at the Supreme Court.
Cross-Examination
Mr. Tsikata resumed the cross-examination of the witness by asking him if he was aware a complaint had been lodged at the Electoral Commission (EC) against the candidacy of Mr. Quayson in December 2020, and the witness said he had read about it on the internet.
“And you are aware that the complaint was that he was not qualified to stand for that election,” the lawyer asked and the witness said: “My Lady, per what I read, I read that a group sent complaints to the EC.”
Mr. Tsikata asked the witness if he was aware that the EC cleared the accused person to stand for the 2020 parliamentary election and Mr. Takyi-Mensah said “per what I read, the EC invited the complainant and the accused to a meeting and based on what the accused told the EC, the EC cleared him.”
“So you realise that the accused participated in that election on the basis of being cleared by the EC,” Mr. Tsikata asked and the witness said: “Yes, based on what the accused told the EC.”
The trial continues today.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak