Trial of four Yemenis yet to begin

An Accra Circuit Court has called on the Police to ensure that the trial of four suspects from Yemen, who allegedly entered Ghana with fake Emergency Entry Visas and French passports, proceeds in earnest.

According to the Court it would not entertain any excuses from prosecution at the next sitting.

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.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Adjei informed the Court that the substantive prosecutor, DSP Aidan Dery, had gone for a course, hence prayed for a short adjournment.

The Court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh did not take kindly to the prosecution’s submission pointing out that the trial was to begin today.

It noted that an official of the Ghana Immigration Service was in Court to testify only for the case to be adjourned.

Chief Superintendent of Police Mr Duuti Tuaruka informed the Court that the matter would be reassigned to another prosecutor in the absence of the substantive prosecutor.

The matter was, therefore, adjourned to February 15.

DSP Aidan Dery, the prosecutor, who earlier read the facts, said all the accused persons are 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.

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

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

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

Prosecution said a further examination of their Yemeni passports indicated that Esmail and Gaafar had travelled several times to Djibouti before their trip to Ghana.