Tiger Eye: Judgement In Defamation Suit A Travesty Of Justice
Tiger Eye P.I, the investigative firm of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has described as a travesty of justice, the ruling given by Justice Eric Baah on Wednesday in a defamation suit filed against lawmaker Kennedy Agyapong.
In 2018, Kennedy Agyapong made some publications to the effect that the investigative journalist was a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, a murderer and evil, forcing the latter to drag the former to court.
On March 15, 2023, the Accra High court delivered a ruling by throwing out the GHc25 million defamation suit and slapping the plaintiff with a GH¢50,000 cost award.
A part of the judge’s ruling reportedly said, “From the above, I hold that the plaintiff [Anas] is a blackmailer who uses blackmail to extort money from his opponents and people he does not like. What the plaintiff is doing is not investigative journalism but investigative terrorism”.
But Tiger Eye P.I. finds the ruling as a travesty of justice and very inimical to the administration of justice and fairness, even though the court established the legislator indeed defamed the journalist.
“If for nothing at all, Mr Agyapong made an allegation of murder against Mr Anas. There is absolutely nothing contained in the said documentary which alludes to the commission of murder or an allegation of the commission of murder by Mr Anas.
“Thus, that documentary cannot provide any justification for an allegation of murder in the wildest imagination. Yet the judge conveniently ignored this obvious fact and the fact that Mr Anas is not a suspect for murder and is not under investigation for murder”, it held.
It furthered that “This case travelled through the hands of three judges with Justice Baah being the latest assigned to the case at the express instance of Kennedy Agyapong. Throughout the trial, Mr Agyapong displayed absolute disdain and disrespect of the Court and the lawyers of Anas but all attempts to cite him for contempt hit a dead end.”
It noted that the firm and Anas are resolute in their fight against corruption in Ghanaian society.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
