The Minority in Parliament has taken exception to the attitude of High Court judge Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay in snubbing an application by counsel of the Ashanti Region Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to refer some constitutional questions to the Supreme Court.
On Monday, July 20, Justice Kocuvie-Tay sentenced Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, to 20 years in prison with hard labour. He was also fined GH¢120,000.
But reacting to the judgement, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said for judgement to be delivered in the absence of the lead counsel of the defense is a breach of precedent.
“The right to counsel of choice is not a courtesy extended at a court’s convenience,” the Effutu Member of Parliament (MP) wrote in a statement issued on Monday.
“It is a constitutional guarantee that may only be displaced in the most exceptional circumstances, and only after a court has satisfied itself that no reasonable accommodation was possible.”
He cited the trial of renown lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata as precedent.
“What makes this history impossible to wave away is what ultimately happened to Mr Tsikata’s case.
“On 30th November, 2016, some eight years after his conviction and five-year sentence, the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged him on all counts, and did not mince words in doing so.”
The Minority Leader also described as a “matter of serious constitutional consequence” the refusal by the trial judge to hear the defense’s application to refer certain questions to the Supreme Court under Article 130.
“Justice Kocuvie-Tay’s reliance on R v. Mainkankan to hold that Section 99(2)(b) of Act 703 was ‘clear and unambiguous’ and did not conflict with Article 19(11) resolves, in our respectful view, precisely the question that ought to have been reserved for the Supreme Court.”
The Minority, therefore, urged Chairman Wontumi’s legal team to appeal the judgement.