Court refuses an application

The Fast Track Court (FTC) hearing the Quality Grain case, on Friday dismissed an application by the defence for stay of proceedings for seven days pending an appeal against its ruling that four of the five accused persons have a case to answer.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Kwame Afreh said the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.), which the defence argued on, applied to civil cases and not criminal ones.

Besides that, the court said that provision in law, applied to stay of execution of judgement and not stay of proceedings.

He, therefore, asked the four to answer the charges against them on Wednesday, December 6.

At this juncture, Mr Kwaku Baah, on behalf of the other counsel, appealed to the judge to give them time till early January 2002, for the accused persons to prepare their defence.

The court refused the long adjournment and told them to come next Wednesday to answer the charges.

On December 19 the court ruled that the prosecutions had established prima facie case against the five persons after the defence had made submissions of "no case" against them.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, four of the five accused persons appealed against the December 6 date and applied to the court to stay proceedings until the determination of the appeal.

The fifth person, Dr Samuel Dapaah, a former senior public official, expressed his preparedness to open his defence.

The court refused the application and again, the defence invoked the law, which according to them, they were entitled to seven days for the court to stay proceedings.

The other accused persons are Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwame Peprah, former Finance Minister, Dr George Yankey and Nana Ato Dadzie, both senior public officials.

They had pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss to the state