Court dismisses applications by Anane and others
The Financial Court, a division of the High Court, on Friday dismissed an application filed by three of the accused persons in the Ghana International Airline (GIA) saga requesting for relevant documents to the Supreme Court (SC) for interpretation.
The Court presided over by Mr Justice Bright Mensah upheld the submissions of Ms Gertrude Aikins, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) that the case was not a constitutional matter, which had to be sent to the SC for interpretation.
Mr Acquah Sampson, counsel for Dr Richard Winfred Anane, Former Minister of Transport; Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr. Counsel for Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, Former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Mr Sam Okudjeto, counsel for Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, filed three applications asking the court to order the prosecution to make available all pre-trial disclosures to aid the accused persons to defend themselves.
In addition, an order that the Attorney General should provide all the documents and witnesses it intended to call in the trial made accessible to the defence.
They also requested that the matter should be referred to the SC for interpretation because it was a constitutional matter.
Mr Justice Mensah said in his view it was not every issue that should be sent to the SC for interpretation and the lower court was not obliged to state the case before the SC.
He said sections of Act 30 which governed summary trials were not in conflict with the 1992 Constitution.
Mr Justice Mensah explained that summary trials were meant to be expeditious and reduced delays as compared to trial by indictment.
The State had opposed the application on the grounds that sections of the criminal procedure code did not allow accused persons standing summary trial to have access to such documents.
The accused persons together with Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Sammy Crabbe, Former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of New Patriotic Party (NPP), are facing 22 counts of causing financial loss to the State.
Others are defrauding by false pretences, conspiracy to deceive public officers, deceit of public officer, misappropriation of public funds, opening an offshore account without authorisation from Bank of Ghana (BoG), conspiracy to steal and stealing.
They have pleaded not guilty and the court had granted them self-recognisance bail.
The facts as presented by Ms Aikins are that Dr Anane misrepresented facts on GIAL, which was then not in existence, to Cabinet of Former President John Agyekum Kufuor and misled government to buy shares of a fraudulent company.
Dr Anane’s action subsequently led to the liquidation of Ghana Airways.
The DPP said Dr Anane declared that four companies had expressed interest in Ghana Airways and later presented a letter of intent, which was signed between Government of Ghana and GIAL to form a new company called New Ghana Airways (NGA), although GIAL was at that time not in existence.
She said the memorandum Dr Anane presented to Cabinet for signing was dated September 9, 2004 but GIAL was not in existence at that date.
Ms Aikins said that although PriceWaterhouse Coopers had rated NGA, which had signed an agreement with government to form GIAL, third after KLM and Ghanair, two other companies, which had submitted their bids to take over Ghana Airways, however, NGA won the bid.
She said Mpiani, on June 2, 2005, wrote to the Chairman of Government Taskforce on Ghana Airways Limited authorising the taskforce to take all necessary steps to put the airline into formal liquidation.
The DPP said Dr Akoto-Osei signed a loan agreement, committing the government to a financial obligation of paying GH¢15 million from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to GIAL.
She said Dr Akoto-Osei gave the amount from SSNIT to GIAL as a loan, without Parliamentary approval and at a time when the minority shareholders of the Airline had abandoned the company by withdrawing 1.9 million dollars from GIAL account without the consent of majority shareholder, Government of Ghana.
Ms Aikins said Mpiani authorised the release of six million dollars to GIAL in September 2008, without Parliamentary approval.
According to the prosecution, Crabbe, who represented the minority shareholders in the company, on June 27, 2005 withdrew 1.9 million dollars from the Government of Ghana’s account, without approval from the government (the majority shareholder).
Source: GNA