Kuranchie’s lawyers misled him – Kwesi Pratt

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr., says lawyers of Ken Kuranchie, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Searchlight Newspaper, misled him into showing belligerence before the Supreme Court on Tuesday during his contempt hearing.

“One of the things which happened yesterday which really makes me sad is the fact that…I don’t think he got the best of legal advice,” Kwesi Pratt said on Wednesday.

According to him, “any lawyer with a passing knowledge of the laws of contempt and given the atmosphere in the court and so on, ought to have realised that he needed to [have] conducted himself in a certain way”.

He expressed concern that: “…There was a point at which the lawyers actually left him on his own and he had to state his own case and there were difficulties there”.

Mr. Pratt said there was another point where the lawyers, “having misled him, then went on to say that they didn’t think that he was sophisticated enough to understand the issues and so on and one of the lawyers actually said openly in court that he was not going to support recklessness and so on”.

Mr. Kuranchie was sentenced by the Supreme Court the same day over a front page publication by his newspaper which questioned the basis of the court’s invitation of Deputy Communication Director of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku, for describing the bench as “hypocritical and selective”.

Another Contemnor, Stephen Atubiga was also sentenced to 3 days in prison for vowing on radio that President John Mahama and the governing National Democratic Congress will not hand over power even if the Court ordered so at the end of the election petition hearing.

Atubiga displayed abject remorse when he appeared before the court.

Ken Kuranchie on the other hand attempted explaining himself to the court and ended up engaging the bench in a back-and-forth argument.

He also repeatedly gave conditional apologies despite promptings by the court to either render an unqualified and unreserved apology or stand his ground that he was right and the court was wrong.

His posture was perceived as belligerent and unremorseful by the Court and so was given a harsher punishment of 10-days.

Ken Kuranchie was represented in Court by three Lawyers including Samuel Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South and Mr. Yaw Owusu Addo.