Police Investigator in Yemenis case taken ill

The case of Four Yemenis who are alleged to have travelled to Ghana with fake Emergency Entry Visas and French passports has been adjourned to February 29.

The case investigator, who was to testify in court this morning, was taken ill suddenly in court and was rushed to the hospital by police officers.

The investigator was the one who escorted the Yemenis today.

When the matter was called, prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Adjei informed the court about the plight of the investigator.

Defence counsel Mr Dominic Owusu Sekyere counsel for the Yemenis sympathised with the prosecution over the plight of investigator.

Defence Counsel, however, prayed the court to grant them a short adjournment.

Prosecution has so far called one witness in the case.

The suspects are Esmail Yahya Zeyad aka Evra Allerson, Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer, aka Ciro Carlos, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard, all students and Eissa Yahya Amer a businessman.

They have been variously charged with possession of forged documents, fake Emergency Entry Visas, and forgery of official documents.

The four, who spoke through an Arabic interpreter, pleaded not guilty.

Answering questions under cross- examination by Mr Dominic Owusu-Sekyere, counsel for the accused persons, DSI Manan said it was a fact that visitors could be granted visas on arrival.

However, the witness explained that, that would depend on persons applying for the visas and that could be shown in the airline before one’s arrival.

DSI Manan admitted that accused persons were denied entry visas in Ghana and said he did not know why the accused persons were not deported.

When asked whether Eissa had insisted that he should be sent back to his country, witness said he was not privy to that.

DSP Aidan Dery, the prosecutor, who earlier read the facts, said all the accused persons were Yemeni Nationals who arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on board Ethiopian Airline Flight ET 920, on November 24.

He said whiles undergoing immigration arrival procedures, Esmail, Gaafar and Waleed were found with French passport with different names.

The Prosecution said further search on them revealed that all the accused persons had Yemeni passports too and when the French passports with different names were examined, they were found to be fake.

According to the prosecution, when the accused persons were quizzed they claimed Abdulai Mohammed, an individual based in Yemen, was the one who secured for them the French passports.

He said they claimed the same individual gave them a phone number to call a certain Mohammed on arrival in Ghana.

The prosecution said the accused persons were on transit in Ghana to France, then to Istanbul, Turkey.

The prosecution said another examination of their Yemeni passports indicated that Esmail and Gaafar had travelled several times to Djibouti before their trip to Ghana.