Chief Justice Sits On Corruption Scandal

The case of the four lawyers who were blacklisted by the Judges and Magistrates Association for claiming that there is corruption within Ghana’s judiciary has taken a new turn, ahead of the appearance of Dr. Raymond Atuguba, Mr. Larry Bimi, Dr. Abraham Amaliba and Mr. David Annan before the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council.

An Accra-based private legal practitioner, Mr. Charles Zwennes, has suggested that the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, has since November 2009, been sitting on a case of judicial misconduct involving a High Court Judge, who sat over a US$1 million case involving an international company whose name Mr. Zwennes is withholding.

He spoke to Sammy Darko, a reporter of an Accra-based radio Station, Joy FM. The officials of the company are accusing the judge, the lawyer and the applicant of duping them of US$1 million.

According to Mr. Zwennes, his clients had petitioned the Chief Justice, and submitted records of over a 100 telephone conversations and text messages exchanged between the trial judge and lawyer, who had dragged the international company to court, demanding a whooping US$1 million on behalf a client.

These secret conversations between the two, Mr. Zwennes suggested, had an adverse effect on the trial in which a cost of US$100,000 was awarded against his clients by the judge who had granted the applicant’s relief of US$1 million.

The trial judge and the plaintiff’s lawyer were in telephone conversations before and after trial anytime there was a court appearance. The plaintiff’s lawyer is said to be a top female lawyer, while the judge involved is a male.

Records showing the number of times that the judge and lawyer had been discussing the case before and after each court hearing, has been delivered to Justice Wood, from the office of the National Security Coordinator about two years ago, however, nothing has been heard from the Judicial Council chaired by the Chief Justice, since then.

Mr. Zwennes also disclosed that the judge involved has admitted his guilt, after he and his client made appearances before the Judicial Council to speak to the complaint and clarify their claim against a clear perversion of justice to the Judicial Council.

According to him, his clients “are really asking the judiciary of Ghana to come out clearly with a code of conduct, as far as these type of communications are concerned; to say whether in the context of Ghana’s jurisprudence, it is considered proper or improper for a lawyer who has a case before a judge to be speaking to him/her so frequently before hearings and after hearings of the case.”

Mr. Zwennes who works with Gaisie Zwennes Hughes & Co. said the Judicial Council has not responded to his clients’ request so far.

“That is simply what these petitions have invited them to come out with, and they have not come out with it” Zwennes underscored.

He noted that the justice system was naturally meant to be fallible and therefore, there was the need to be careful when addressing instances of irregularity in the judiciary “so as not to erode the integrity of the institution because the institution does a fine job; the institution underpins law and order in our society”

According to him, in rectifying or refurbishing the judicial system, it must not be pulled down; it must be improved, and that was why his client’s had persued the matter in a responsible manner, hoping that justice would be done eventually.

Since Dr. Raymond Atuguba, Messrs Larry Bimi, Abraham Amaliba, and David Annan have been blacklisted by the Judges and Magistrates Association for their claim that corruption was rife in the judiciary, a lawyer in the person of Mr. Chris Ackumey, has declared the matter to be true and has volunteered to give evidence that a judge had collected GH¢500.00 from four people in order to give judgement in their favour, in a case that they were involved.

Media publications, including those of The Herald, have also cited instances of corruption in the judiciary.