Quayson Appeals Daily Hearing Of Perjury Case, Points To Errors
The re-elected Member of Parliament for the Assin North constituency, James Gyaakye Quayson, has run to the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court decision to hear his perjury and forgery case on a day-to-day basis.
The High Court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh ruled last week that the case will be heard daily from June 20, 2023. A review application by the lawyers of Quayson failed. This was after the Attorney General filed an oral application to hear the case daily.
In his appeal, he highlighted five instances where the court erred in its decision.
“The court below erred in law when it failed to appreciate that the exercise of its discretion on 16th June 2023 in respect of the grant of adjournments violated the provision of Article 296(a) and (b) of the 1992 Constitution as did the prosecutorial discretion by the Attorney General.”
“The court below erred in law when it claimed that matters brought to its attention by the accused regarding the abuse of prosecutorial powers with extremely prejudicial implications and an insult of the accused person and professional misconduct by the Attorney-General in respect of this case we’re not it’s consideration of the review application.”
“The court below erred in law when it failed to appreciate the significance of the rights of the accused person contained in articles 19(13) and 21(3) as well as Article 19(1) in respect of the necessity for a court when exercising it’s discretion, to consider all relevant factors.”
“The court erred in law when it invoked section 169 of the Criminal Procedure Code as if that Section requires or justifies a criminal trial being heard day to day.”
“The court below erred in law when it failed to appreciate that, on 16th June 2023, it did not have jurisdiction to hear and determine the oral application made by the Attorney-General without prior notice to hear the accused and his lawyers for a significant change in respect of the fixing of dates for the hearing of the case.”
