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An Accra Excessive Courtroom has granted an software by the Workplace of the Lawyer Normal to conduct the trial of former Chief Government Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, in her absence after she fled to the US in 2021 and has since refused to return for the trial.
The Workplace of the Lawyer Normal filed the movement earlier than the court docket urging it to conduct the trial within the absence of the accused, who’s dealing with trial for allegedly inflicting monetary loss to the state after she did not return to the nation following the discharge of her passport to her to journey to United States for medical checkup.
The court docket, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Courtroom of Enchantment choose sitting as a further Excessive Courtroom choose, on January 24, 2023 ordered the previous Chief Government Officer of Ghana Nationwide Petroleum Company (GNPC), Alex Mould and actor, Gavivina Tamakloe to pay GH¢5 million to the state for his or her failure to provide the accused particular person whom they stood sureties for.
Antecedent
Ms. Attionu and Daniel Axim are dealing with 78 counts of fees together with conspiracy to steal, stealing, unauthorised dedication leading to a monetary obligation for the federal government, improper cost, cash laundering and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
The prosecution had referred to as seven witnesses, and counsel for Daniel Axim was left with one hour to finish his cross-examination for the prosecution to shut its case.
Ms. Attionu’s lawyer nevertheless, despatched a letter to the court docket asking it to launch her passport for her to journey for medical checkup, and the court docket, presided over by Justice Asare-Botwe, granted the request and ordered her to return to court docket on October 5, 2021.
She, nevertheless, failed to take action, and the court docket issued a warrant for her arrest and subsequently adjourned the matter to November 16, 2021. She has nonetheless not returned to face trial.
The prosecution due to this fact, filed two functions; one asking the court docket to forfeit the bail bond and make the sureties pay the quantity, and the opposite was urging the court docket for an order to carry the trial in absentia.
Ruling
Justice Asare-Botwe, in her ruling, held that the court docket had already established that the accused has absconded, and it was on that foundation that it ordered the sureties to pay the bail sum to the state.
She concluded that the accused has absconded and should be tried in absentia, grounding her determination on Article 19:3(a) of the 1992 Structure which states that the trial of an individual charged with a prison offence shall happen in his presence except “he refuses to look earlier than the court docket for the trial to be carried out in his presence after he has been duly notified of the trial.”
She stated the court docket is “boldened court docket that A1 (Ms. Attionu) is properly conscious that the case is pending in opposition to her as she had participated within the trial for a yr and half earlier than she sought permission, to not go for remedy however to go for a checkup.”
Justice Asare-Botwe, due to this fact, ordered that underneath Article 19:3(a) Ms. Attionu could be tried in absentia since she has disabled herself of the chance to be tried in her presence, since she was duly notified and conscious of the pendency of the trial.
She additionally ordered {that a} copy of the discover for the continuation of the trial in her absence needs to be served on Agbesi Dzakpasu, her lawyer of file, and likewise by posting of a duplicate of the discover at her final identified place of dwelling in Accra.
The court docket additional ordered a posting of the order on the discover board of the Accra Excessive Courtroom in addition to a single publication in a newspaper of nationwide circulation and the posting shall be for 21 days. The court docket subsequently adjourned the case to March 28, 2023.
In the meantime, Justice Asare-Botwe has ordered Daniel Axim to tell his counsel to be current in court docket on the subsequent sitting to conclude his remaining two hours cross-examination else the accused particular person would conduct the cross-examination himself.
Supply: dailyguidenetwork.com
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