Kwaku Boahen, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and Tony Lithur leaving the court after the proceedings
The
National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel
Ofosu-Ampofo, has for the second time failed in his attempt to have the charges
against him struck out by an Accra High Court.
Mr.
Ofosu-Ampofo, who has been charged with one count of conspiracy to cause harm
and two counts of assault against a public officer, had filed an application
challenging the constitutionality of the leaked tape which the prosecution
intends to rely on for the trial.
The
tape reportedly captures how the opposition NDC is allegedly planning to commit
crimes in the country and turn round to blame them on the ruling New Patriotic
Party (NPP).
Among
the strategies are the creation of a general state of insecurity in the country
through kidnappings and arson, and verbal attacks on public officials like the
Chairman of the National Peace Council, Prof. Emmanuel Asante, and Electoral
Commission Boss, Jean Mensa.
The
alleged leaked tape is among a list of documents filed by the Office of the
Attorney General for the trial of Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo alongside a communication
officer of the party, Anthony Kwaku Boahen.
Rights To Privacy
Mr.
Ofosu-Ampofo filed a motion urging the court to dismiss the charges as the
audio recording which the prosecution intended to rely on was obtained in
breach of his rights to privacy.
According
to him, the prosecution needed a court order to obtain the audio recording in
the manner in which it did and added that since the prosecution failed to do
exactly that they cannot rely on it for the trial.
Moving
the application, his lawyer, Tony Lithur, argued that if the prosecution was
allowed to rely on the audio, then people are at risk as the state could record
any person at any time and claim it was trying to prevent a crime.
He
said it is dangerous to allow the state to prosecute the leader of the
opposition party based on the audio recording, urging the court not to allow
the state to set a precedent.
Opposition
The
application was opposed by the prosecution led by Director of Public
Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa, who relied on Article 18 of the 1992
Constitution which provides exceptions under which such fundamental human
rights can be curtailed.
She
said that fundamental human rights are not limitless and where they involve the
commission of a crime then that right is taken away.
She
told the court that the audio recording which they intended to rely on was
already in the public space and the media had reported on it long before the
police came in to investigate the matter.
She
pleaded with the court to dismiss the application and allow the trial to
commence.
Ruling
The
court presided over by Justice Samuel K. Asiedu dismissed the application
saying it is not different from an earlier one which was also dismissed.
He
said the trial had not commenced and the prosecution had not called any witness
to show that the trial was based primarily on the audio recording obtained by
persons unknown to both the prosecution and the accused persons in violation of
the rights of the accused persons.
The case was adjourned to November 18 for the court to consider another application filed by the accused persons.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
