Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has accused the trial judge in the Ato Forson case of rushing in her ruling to dismiss the application for a mistrial.
Kpebu said the judge’s failure to listen to the arguments of the lawyers of the accused person before pronouncing judgments on the applications amounted to a travesty of justice.
“There was a great travesty of justice. The judge did injustice to the applicants. I don’t know where she was rushing to. The judge should have given the lawyers the opportunity to argue their application,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, June 8.
“Hear the lawyers of the accused persons, that was not done, it was a huge blow to the ruling, the ruling was not rich enough,” he stressed.
“I hope going forward perhaps [the applicants] will get justice from another forum,” he stressed.
Justice Efia Serwah Asare-Botwey dismissed the application for mistrial filed on Thursday, June 6.
She also said the audio tape presented by the third accused did not reveal any instruction from Godfred Dame for Mr. Jakpa to implicate Ato Forson.
“Having listened to the conversation between [Richard Jakpa] and A-G, the allegation that A-G sought assistance to implicate [Ato Forson] was not borne out of the mouth of the A-G but [Richard Jakpa],” she said.
The judge after dismissing the application, however, advised Attorney-General Godfred Dame to recuse himself from the ongoing case in the interest of justice and the public.
Lawyers for the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson filed a supplementary affidavit in support of the motion on notice for an order of mistrial, injunction and or stay of proceedings in the ongoing ambulance case.
This followed the allegations made against Godfred Dame by Richard Jakpa.
The trending recording of a telephone conversation between Mr. Jakpa and the Attorney-General Godfred Dame, had been annexed to the affidavit.
Also, certain quotations contained in some media reports, particularly by Accra-based Asaase Radio that border on alleged professional misconduct on the part of the A-G, had been cited and annexed to the process.
Dr Ato Forson was requesting the honorable court to declare a mistrial in the interest of justice, which must not only be done but be manifestly seen to be done.
The Minority Leader averred that the Attorney-General had embarked on reprehensible and unlawful conduct, conduct unbecoming of an Attorney- General, let alone the Minister for justice, for the sole purpose of securing his conviction. And that, if the Court were to ignore these rather grave matters to proceed with the trial regardless, that would amount to a real travesty of justice, as the Court would have disregarded credible and cogent claims of misconduct by the Attorney General.
He argued that if a mistrial was not ordered and such blatant disregard for the rule of law and the ethics of prosecution by no mean a person than the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice was glossed over and allowed to pass without any consequences, public confidence in the administration of justice would be adversely affected.
