Two brothers to die by hanging

The Koforidua High Court has sentenced two brothers, Ayitey Tetteh and Ayitey Angmor, to death by hanging.

The two, who pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and murder of their relative, Fiagbor Larweh, were found guilty by a seven-member jury.

Larweh’s bullet-ridden body was found on a farm at Sappor, a farming community near Akosombo, on October 5, 2007.

Three others, Awosayo Angbor, Felix Teye and Stephen Odonkor, who were initially apprehended with the convicts in connection with Larweh’s death, were acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence.

Before sentencing the convicts, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo, summed up the proceedings of the trial, which started in 2010, during which a number of witnesses were called.

He then took the jurors, made up of three women and four men, through the rudiments of trial by jury.

He told them that as laymen, they were to be judges of facts, not of the law, and that they should not base their findings on suggestions, speculations or ethnicity but facts before the court.

Justice Kaglo further advised the jurors to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the culprits were those who had killed Larweh and that the slightest doubt in that respect must go in favour of the convicts, since the penalty was death.

He then requested the jurors to retire to a room within the court building to determine the fate of the convicts and, after about 30 minutes, they returned with a unanimous decision of guilty for the convicts.

Ayitey Tetteh and Ayitey Angmor, who sat motionless during the proceedings, were heard saying quietly in Krobo that they had no hand in the death of their relative before they were taken away by prison officers on their journey of no return.

Earlier, a State Attorney, Ms Akpene Morteh, had told the court that Larweh, who was living outside the Krobo area, visited one of his relatives, Francis Fiagbor, at Nuaso, near Odumase-Krobo, and that on October 5, 2007 he left Nuaso to visit the convicts at Sappor.

She said when Larweh did not return, enquiries were made from the convicts, who said although Larweh had been with them, he boarded a vehicle back to Nuaso.

Ms Morteh further told the court that the convicts did not assist in the search for Larweh, whose bullet-ridden body was found on a farm at Sappor, after which a report was made to the police, who arrested the two.

She said evidence in respect of the murder incriminated the two.**