Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine
Legal counsels for Kwabena Adu Boahene, the former Director of the National Signal Bureau (NSB), and his wife, Angela Adjei Boateng, have lambasted the Attorney-General Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, for engaging in a “trial by media” rather than letting the due process run its course.
The lawyers, Zoe, Akyea & Co, in a letter dated March 24 denounced the AG for calling their clients as “state looters” during a press conference while acknowledging that the Economic and Organised Crime Office’s (EOCO) investigations were still under progress.
“The Learned Attorney-General has cheapened the press conference by pronouncing our clients guilty in the court of public opinion,” the letter stated.
“He unprofessionally labelled prejudicial information as ‘evidence,’ poisoning public perception before any formal charges.”
The lawyers contended that such action violates constitutional protections that prevent accused from being judged before their trials.
“It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Attorney-General is comfortable with the press where there is “no proof beyond reasonable doubt.” The Attorney-General has become the media persecutor of our Clients, a judge in his own court while simultaneously asserting that he is still investigating the case. This is counter-intuitive.”
“We do not believe a change of government through constitutional means should degenerate into a reset version of rule of law in which the press is fed with a pathetic one-sided and untested position by the leader of the Bar. This unmitigated prejudice with defamatory consequences will be prosecuted in the appropriate forum.”
The lawyers further stated that the AG’s action was politically motivated.
“When a case from the highest level of the Attorney-General is tried in the press, it degenerates from prosecution—which must be impartial—to persecution.”
KA
Meanwhile, watch this captivating story of the Ghana’s 100-year-old World War II veteran whose name is widely known in the Buckingham Palace, below:
