Supreme Court adjourns Tsatsu's case

Accra, April 7, GNA - The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to April 28, the hearing of an application brought by Professor E.V.O. Dankwa, Counsel for Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, that the Court set aside an order it made on February 25, 2009 for the parties to the review to file submissions on the effect of the pardon granted by former President John Agyekum Kufuor at the end of his term of office.

The adjournment became necessary because neither the Attorney-General nor any representative was in court when the case was called.

It also came to the notice of the court that, the Attorney-General's Department had filed an affidavit in opposition to the application but the Presiding Judge, Justice William Atuguba had not been provided a copy of the affidavit. Mr Tsikata's counsel, Prof. Dankwa endorsed the adjournment of the hearing.

The Supreme Court had been scheduled on February 25, 2009 to rule on applications that Professor Dankwa had filed seeking extension of time to file a supplement to the statement of case that Mr Tsikata himself filed from prison and permission to provide new evidence to the Court showing the unconstitutional collusion between the Executive and the Judiciary in relation to the proceedings that took place before Mrs. Justice Henrietta Abban in the Fast Track High Court on June 18 2008. However, the Supreme Court, instead of giving its ruling, rather ordered the parties to file submissions on the issue of the pardon. Professor Dankwa informed the court that his client had not had a copy of the pardon at which point the court enquired of the representative from the Attorney-General's Department who indicated that he could supply copies to the court if given time to do so. The Court gave a week for the pardon to be made available to the court and also proceeded to require each side to file submissions on the effect of the pardon.

Counsel for Mr Tsikata is asking the Supreme Court to set aside the order it made regarding the issue of the pardon and rather give the ruling the court was expected to give on February 25 2009.