Court reviews bail of Gold suspect

Peter Kofi Bedzra one of the suspects involved in the exportation of the 1,500 kg of gold to Turkey have had his bail condition reviewed by an Accra Circuit Court to enable him to seek medical attention in Nigeria.

The review follows an appeal by his lawyer, Mr Musa Ahmed, to the court to reassess the bail condition which required the suspect to deposit his passport with the court registrar.

Though Bedzra has already been granted bail in the sum of GH? 100,000.00 with two sureties, he was ordered by the court to deposit his passport with the registrar.

Mrs Patience Tetteh Mills, the Trial Judge in granting the request for Bedzra to go for the passport to travel to Nigeria for the medical treatment, slapped the suspect with a fresh bail of GH100,000 with three sureties.

In a related development, Mr Rafael Bonney, Counsel for Frank Mould, the second accused told the court that his client has been granted bail by an Accra High Court.

Joseph Kwame Donkor, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Chairman for Gomoa West, the third suspect whose car was impounded by the BNI also appealed to the Court for the car to be released.

The Court however refused to grant his demand.

Peter Kofi Bedzra is standing trail for various criminal offences including forgery of documents, exportation and smuggling of minerals.

Both Frank Mould and Joseph Donkor have been charged separately for assisting Bedzra to export gold to Turkey. Mould was additional charged for forgery of documents. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecuting, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Abraham A. Annor, told the court that Mould was a clearing agent at the Kotoka International Airport.

He said in December last year, one Valid Moradi Moghaddam and his partners, all Arabs, were in Ghana to buy gold.

Prosecution said they came into contact with Omanye Gold Mining Limited, who sold to them a quantity of gold weighing 1.5 tonnes valued at 52 million dollars.

Prosecution said the buyers packed the gold in 30 boxes to be exported to Dubai.

Mould, the prosecution said, with intent to evade the requirement of the law, assisted Peter Kofi Bedzra to forge a Geological Survey Department certificate, a Bank of Ghana Foreign Exchange Form 4(a) and Goods Movement Certificate.

The three certificates enabled the movement of 30 boxes of gold through customs and other security checks at KIA and the gold bars were exported to Dubai on December 31, 2012.

Further investigation had disclosed that on December 29, last year, a chartered flight arrived to carry the consignment to Dubai.

Donkor is said to have had knowledge of the arrival of the flight and as such made hotel reservation at the Golden Tulip Hotel for seven crew members and paid for their bills.

Prosecution said on December 31, last year, Bedzra and one “Believer” together with others went to KIA to see to it that Mould processed the consignment for export.

Donkor kept communicating with Believer on phone until 2230 hours when the plane left Ghana with the 30 boxes of gold.

However the gold was intercepted and detained at Turkey because the documents accompanying the gold were not genuine. The documents include a Geological Survey Department certificate, bank of Ghana Foreign Exchange Form 4(a) and Gold Movement Certificate to facilitate the export of 1,500 kg of gold.

Following an accusation that the government of Ghana was involved in the gold scandal, it ordered the Bureau of National Investigations to commence investigations into the matter.