Major Maxwell Mahama
The prosecution as well as defence lawyers in the trial of 14 persons accused of brutally lynching Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region, would on October 9, 2023, orally address the seven-member jury in the trial.
An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu, Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court Judge, set the date after all parties in the matter yesterday indicated to the court that they have all received the proceedings in the case as previously ordered by the court.
The case was adjourned to October due to the impending legal vacation for the Superior Courts which begins from July 31, and lasts for two months.
The court also directed the parties in the case to file their written legal closing addresses after the oral submissions after which the court would sum up the trial to the jury on a yet to be decided date after which the jury would retire to deliberate on a verdict.
Major Mahama was the captain of the 31-member military team sent to the town to guard the properties of C&G Mining Company as a result of illegal mining activities in the area.
William Baah, the then Assemblyman for the area is standing trial for abetment of murder while the other 13 are facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and substantive charge of murder.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been in prison custody since the commencement of the trial in 2018.
The other accused persons are Bernard Asamoah, alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame a.k.a Abortion, Charles Kwaning a.k.a Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor, John Bosie, Akwasi Asante, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.
The Office of the Attorney General on May 16, 2022, closed its case in the trial of the 14 persons who allegedly lynched the late Major Maxwell Mahama at New Obuasi in the Central Region in 2017.
The prosecution during the presentation of its case called 14 witnesses who gave various accounts of what happened on the day and what they witnessed.
Frances Mullen Ansah, a Chief State Attorney during one of the proceedings led the case investigator in evidence when the court played the horrifying videos which captured the accused persons lynching the deceased.
Eleven of the accused persons opened their defence and denied the charges against them while three; Kofi Nyame, BismarkAbanga and Kwadwo Anima, waived their rights to mount a defence.
Charles Kwaning during his defence denied attacking the deceased and said he was rather trying to rescue him from the angry mob.
Although the accused was captured in a video pointing a gun at the deceased, he told the court that he had taken the gun from one Yaw Amankwa, who wanted to shoot the late soldier.
One of them, Akwasi Baah in his defence admitted heating the deceased with a cement block at the scene but told the court that the late soldier was already dead when he smashed his head with the cement block.
Another one, Bernard Asamoah, also admitted hitting the deceased with a stone but said he only hit the body which was motionless in his attempt to identify him.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak