Supreme Court Overturns Judge Asiamah's Ruling

THE SUPREME court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice E.K. Wiredu, has quashed the ten months' custodial sentence imposed on Rev. James Asankomah Tandoh, a Takoradi-based pastor, by Justice Asiamah, the Supervising High Court judge in the Western Region, after being found guilty of contempt.

The decision by the Supreme Court to quash the sentence was based on the submission made by Mrs. Quansah, who represented the Sekondi High Court from the Attorney-General's Department, and who held that the conviction cannot be supported.

"In view of the fact that the concession made by counsel representing the respondent that the conviction cannot be supported, we have no choice but to discharge and acquit the applicant.

The sentence imposed on the applicant is hereby quashed.

He is to be released forthwith," Justice E.K. Wiredu wrote in his ruling. Other members of the five-member panel were Justices A.K.B. Ampiah, G.K. Acquah, W. A. Atuguba and S.A.B. Akuffo (Mrs).

It would be recalled that sometime in February, this year, the Sekondi High Court, presided over by Justice Asiamah, found Rev. Asankomah Tandoh, who had engaged in an almost a four-year legal battle with his mother, Prophetess Mary Woode, over the ownership of Nazareth Schools, a popular school complex in Takoradi, guilty of contempt for making unsubstantiated bribery allegations against the presiding judge.

Rev. Tandoh had earlier filed a motion at the court praying for an order to remove Justice Asiamah from presiding over the case involving him and his mother, of which the former is the third judge that had been appointed to handle it.

In the affidavit accompanying the said motion, Rev. Tandoh contended that his mother and her counsel had paid a nocturnal visit to Justice Asiamah's residence at Windy Ridge in Takoradi.

He also alleged that Justice Asiamah and his mother also paid similar visits to his new school, Jaycris, whilst the substantive case was pending before him.

He further stated in the affidavit that he had submitted the registration number and colour of the vehicle that allegedly took the judge and his mother to his school in the night and the name of the driver to the BNI, who also begun investigations into it.

He, therefore, submitted that Justice Asiamah should be barred from handling the case since he might not give him a fair hearing.

When the case was finally called, Justice Asiamah directed the plaintiff's attention to the publication of his motion and the sworn affidavit in The Dispatch newspaper and asked him series of question including whether he the plaintiff personally saw him (judge) and his mother visiting his school in the night.

Asankomah responded in the negative but said he had witnesses who saw them and that he was prepared to bring them to court to testify on his behalf.

Justice Asiamah, who had earlier asked the editor of The Dispatch to retract his publication, told the plaintiff that he had convicted and sentenced him to 10 months' imprisonment for causing what he described as scandalous publication in the paper.

This ruling compelled Kuenyehia and Co, an Accra-based legal firm and new counsel for Asankomah Tandoh, to file a motion of notice for an order of certiorari to quash the ruling given by Justice Asiamah Kuenyehia argued that the facts contained in the ruling by Asiamah did not in law amount to contempt of court because the affidavit had already been filed with the court and copies served on the judge and all the interested parties.

Counsel further submitted that since court processes are privileged, the publication cannot amount to contempt of court, arguing further that the applicant was not even given ample time to produce evidence before the court concluded that what was stated in the affidavit was not true.