Ofosu Ampofo thrown out | General News 2019-06-08

General News of Saturday, June 8, 2019

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

2019-06-08

The plans of Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, National President of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), an opposition party, to bring down two of the three charges against him, were problematic.

This follows the rejection of a request from his lawyers asking the court to strike the charges for lack of clarification.

Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo and Anthony Kwaku Boahen, the party's deputy communications officer, face three charges against a high court in Accra for audio disclosure strategies that the NDC would have used for 2020 elections, including the kidnapping of family members of opponents.

The members of the NDC were filmed on a tape and would intend to commit crimes in the country and turn around to blame the new Patriotic Party (NPP) in power.

Charges

Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo was charged with one count of conspiracy to cause harm and two counts of badaulting a public officer.

Mr. Boahen, on the other hand, faces a charge of conspiracy to cause harm.

Last month, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo filed a petition challenging the two charges of badaulting a public officer.

His lawyers argued that the fact that the Attorney General (AG) failed to provide details of the charges was a vice and therefore could not be called upon to answer these charges.

They therefore requested the court to strike the charges against their client.

Attorney General Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa, however, opposed the petition, asking the court not to take it into account.

Judge Samuel K. Asiedu, the presiding judge, dismissed the claim on the grounds that the charges were well-founded and that the defect, as stated by the attorney, was not fatal at trial.

Alibi

The court also dismissed the alibi filed by Mr. Boahen's attorneys, who baderted that he was not at the aforementioned meeting where the plans would have been made.

According to his lawyer, Dr. Baasit Bamba, the deputy head of communications was in another place when this meeting took place.

He said that they had communicated the names of 11 people and their phone numbers to the Attorney General's office to prove the veracity of the alibi, but the Attorney General could only talk about it. to four of them.

In its decision, the court also found that the prosecution was not required to speak to all persons – the defense provided the alibi.

Judge Asiedu added that the defense team could use the remaining eight as witnesses at the trial.

In the meantime, the court ordered the prosecution to provide the defense with a logbook extract relating to the criminal complaint against Mr. Boahen.

The newspaper application was part of the applications filed by his lawyer.

Witnesses

The dismissal of the motions paved the way for the prosecution's prosecution of its first witness, as the defense and the prosecution held a case management conference to establish the rules of procedure.

The president of the court then decided that the trial would begin on July 8, 2019.