Court to rule on supplementary affidavit

Accra Greater Accra), 26 Nov '98- A circuit court in Accra will on Monday, November 30, give a ruling on whether to accept a supplementary affidavit in support of a motion filed by two editors who are charged with making publications likely to injure the reputation of the state.

The court, presided over by Mr Victor Ofoe, fixed the date after counsel for the defence and prosecution completed their submissions.

On November 23, Mr Akoto Ampaw, attorney for Eben Quarcoo, a former editor of the " Free Press" and one of the accused, wanted to file the supplementary affidavit in addition to one in support of a motion the defence filed but the prosecution objected.

The motion was filed on September 22, this year, urging the court to "abort the trial, dismiss the case and discharge the accused persons" because President Jerry John Rawlings had officially made statements which, to them, would prejudice the case.

The court therefore adjourned the case to enable counsel for both sides to address the court on the issue later.

On trial with Quarcoo is Kofi Coomson, editor-in-chief of the "Ghanaian Chronicle". Both have pleaded not guilty.

Objecting to the affidavit, Mr Martin Amidu, Deputy Attorney-General, urged the court to strike it out because it did not have any relevance to the motion.

The Deputy Attorney-General said the filing of the supplementary affidavit is at variance with High Court rules on application or motion accompanied by affidavits.

He said a cursory study of the affidavit raises constitutional issues which if the defence wanted to be considered as part of their case, must go through the correct procedure for the court to rule whether to refer the matter to the Supreme Court for interpretation.

Mr Amidu said the filing of the supplementary affidavit is not backed by any law for the court to accept it.

Replying, Mr Ampaw said the charge against the accused is a second degree felony which carries a sentence of 10 years.

Counsel said the supplementary affidavit is not only meant to accord the defence a fair trial but also to strengthen its case so that in the end justice is manifestly seen to have been done.

He said there is nothing illegal in filing the affidavit because no law debars an applicant from putting in a supplementary affidavit in support of his case.

Mr Ampaw said the affidavit raises matters of fact and not constitutional issues as argued by the prosecution and added that even if it raises constitutional matters, there is nothing wrong in law for the court to stay proceedings and refer the matter to the Supreme Court.

Counsel urged the court, in fairness to the defence, to accept and consider the affidavit.

The two editors were alleged to have published that the NDC government was dealing in narcotics drugs and that it used the proceeds to purchase arms and ammunitions to destabilised the country if it lost the presidential and parliamentary elections held in December 1996.