Writing to judges is also contemptuous, Atuguba warns

Justice William Atuguba, presiding judge has opened Day 42 of the Election Petition hearing with another warning.

People should desist from writing to the judges; it is also contemptuous, he announced.

The presiding judge said highly-placed persons in society have been writing letters to the judges – a practice which is unacceptable in law.

He attributed it to the reality that many Ghanaians do not understand the intricacies of the law profession.

“A lay man is a lay man,” he quipped.

Nonetheless, the bench was serving public notice that writing to a judge on a matter pending in court is contemptuous.

“Stop it,” he warned.

Three persons have been found guilty of contempt so far in the Election Petition which is a challenge against the declaration of John Mahama as winner of the 2012 Presidential Elections held last December.

The three - Sammy Awuku of the opposition NPP, Stephen Atubiga of the governing NDC and Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Ken Kuranchie.