Saturday 8th March , 2014 7:31 am
An Accra Circuit Court on Friday fixed April 11 to commence hearing into the case of three persons, including a court official of the Judicial Service who were nabbed over fake Judicial Certificate of Divorce.
This was after it had granted bail to Akwasi Asare Junior, a Clerk with the AMA, Charlotte Ofori, a typist of the Judicial Service and Daniel Kwame Bessah, ex-army officer in the sum of GH200,000 cedis each with two sureties each.
Asare has been charged with forgery of judicial document, while Charlotte is being held for abetment of crime.
Bessah, Major (retired) is being held for possessing and forging judicial certificate of divorce.
The three accused persons have pleaded not guilty before the court presided over by Ms Audrey Kocuvi-Tay.
In the court, three defence counsels prayed the court to admit the accused persons to bail as offence preferred against the accused persons were bailable.
According to the lawyers, before the case was brought to court the accused persons were on police enquiry bail as such they would not abscond from the court’s jurisdiction.
They contended that they would cooperate with the court.
The case of the prosecution was that the complainant Innocencia Ama Avetey, the wife of Bessah, got married under ordinance on 12 October, 2002 and both had been living together as husband and wife.
In October last year, Bessah went to the complainant’s room and threw a divorce certificate at her, directing her to leave her matrimonial home with her luggage and baggage for no reason.
The complainant read through the divorce certificate dated January 5, 2010 and notarized by Mr Samuel Boakye Yiadom, the 2nd Deputy Judicial Secretary.
The complainant was astonished as she had not been arraigned or aware of any divorce proceeding in any court. She, therefore, contacted her lawyers who reported the matter to the Police.
According to prosecution, investigation revealed that the case was filed at a Circuit Court which was presided over by Mr Justice Ofosu Quartey, a High Court Judge, who, in fact, had never presided over any such case.
The prosecution said the suit number of the case could also not be found in the Circuit Court Registry.
Also, Mr Boakye Yiadom, the Deputy Judicial Secretary and Mr S. F. Otoo, the Chief Registrar of the Circuit Court claimed they did not have any knowledge of the document, hence, described it as fake.
Asare Junior in his cautioned statement claimed that it was a “job” given to him by Charlotte, who said they were mere documents meant to facilitate the visa acquisition.
Bessah, however, denied saying that he really sought for a divorce certificate after paying for a statutory fee and that the certificate was handed over to him to be served on his wife.
Source: GNA