Doctor Jailed 25 Years

Dr Sulley Ali Gabass, the senior medical doctor at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, was yesterday handed a 25-year jail term by an Accra Gender-Based Domestic Violence Circuit Court.

Dr Ali Gabass has for the past eight months been standing trial over a two-count charge of defiling a child under 16 years old and unnatural carnal knowledge, an offence he had denied.

The criminal offences act defines defilement in Section 101 as the natural or unnatural carnal knowledge of any child under 16 years of age, and if found liable, can be summarily convicted to imprisonment for a term of not less than seven years and not more than 25 years.

The judge exercised her discretion for the 25 years maximum sentence.

Dr Gabass is alleged to have, in the months of October 2013 and April 2014 at Kasoa and Alajo respectively, had unnatural carnal knowledge of the 16-year-old boy.

The court, presided over by Mrs Rita Agyeman-Budu, after full trial, found the accused guilty of the charge of defilement.

The trial judge, however, acquitted and discharged Dr Gabass on the second charge of unnatural carnal knowledge which she described as ‘bad in law.’

Mrs Agyeman-Budustated that the victim could not have been defiled with the accused person having carnal knowledge of the victim.

She stated that it was unnecessary for the prosecution to have preferred the charge of unnatural carnal knowledge against the convict, indicating that the offence could not have been sustained with defilement.

Interestingly, Dr Gabass, thinking he had been cleared of both charges, knelt down in the dock in praise of Allah, but that joy was short-lived.

In sentencing Dr Gabass, the judge wondered why all the meetings between the accused and the victim happened in the night and in the tinted 4×4 vehicle of the convict.

TEARS FLOWS! Ali Gabass wife
Mrs Agyeman-Budu again was at a loss as to what kind of hold the victim had on Dr Gabass to have made demands on him (Dr Gabass), adding that she did not find the accused person buying a telephone for the victim and giving him (victim) GH¢800 as a ‘philanthropic act.’

In the view of the judge, the prosecution was able to prove the guilt of the accused and accordingly slapped him with the jail term.

Mrs Agyeman-Budu was emphatic that the act of Dr Gabass was reprehensible and must be condemned in no uncertain terms.

She said at the time moral decadence was on the ascendancy in the society, acts like that needed not to be entertained.

In a very shocking turn of events, John Ephraim Baiden, holding the brief for John Benson, counsel for the doctor, instead of pleading for his client, rather sought to draw the attention of the court to the fact that the offence for which the accused had been brought before the court is a global trend now.

He explained that the United Nation’s Charter has respect for people with such sexual preferences.

According to the police, during the month of October 2013 Dr Gabass arranged and met the victim at the Kasoa New Market area in the Central Region where he forcibly had anal sex with the victim in his vehicle in front of the Kasoa HFC Bank.

During police interrogation, Dr Gabass had admitted knowing the victim as a friend, but denied having anal sex with him.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
[email protected]


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