Lawyer for Kwesi Nyantakyi speaks on Supreme Court ruling on Anas testifying

A member of the legal team representing the former President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, has stated that his side is only ensuring due processes are followed in the ongoing criminal trial of his client.

According to the private legal practitioner, Baffour Gyawu Bonsu Ashia of Sory@law, the decision to seek a Supreme Court ruling to quash an order of the High Court granting investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas the right to testify against his client with his identity hidden is to ensure due process is followed.

“We are not bent; that is a constitutional provision. If you check, it says every trial should be in public. It is statutory; it is a constitutional right to have your trial in public. So if you want to go contrary to that, it should be a compelling reason. So it is not as wanting somebody or not wanting somebody to testify in camera.

“Basically, that is what it is (following due process), so that is what the constitution says that every proceeding should be in public and that if you want to testify or have a proceeding in camera, there are laid down processes and procedures that you go through. So if he comes today and says that he wants to testify in camera, yes, you should come properly; bring an application, support it with an affidavit,” he told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, quashed a High Court ruling which granted the journalist the right to testify with a mask in the Republic v Kwesi Nyantakyi & Another case.

Meanwhile, Cromwell Gray LLP, lawyers for the celebrated investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has urged the public to disregard what it describes as a false reportage within a section of the media that the Supreme Court of Ghana presided over by Baffoe-Bonnie, JSC, has ordered the journalist to testify without a mask.

According to a seven-point release available to GhanaWeb, the lawyers indicated that the Supreme Court in its ruling on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, did not make such an order. They also noted that their client is not being compelled by the apex court to appear in court without his mask.

Mr Nyantakyi and a former Chairman of the Northern Regional Football Association (RFA), Abubakar Alhassan, were charged with conspiracy to commit crime in a football scandal following Tiger Eye PI expose.

Mr Nyantakyi is facing additional charges of corruption by a public officer and fraud by an agent.

They have, however, denied the charges and have been admitted to bail in the sum of Gh¢1m with three sureties each; one of the sureties is to be justified.

Anas, who is a witness of the prosecution nominated to testify against the accused persons after his colleague, Ahmed Suale, who was the lead witness, was murdered on January 19, 2019.

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