Monday, August 4, 2008

TSATSU TSIKATA'S BAIL APPLICATION DISMISSED

JULY 31, 2008 (PAGE 3 LEAD)


THE Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday dismissed a bail application filed by Tsatsu Tsikata pending an appeal against his five-year conviction for causing financial loss to the state.
According to the trial judge, Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, Tsikata’s refusal to move the motion for bail pending appeal was an indication that he (Tsikata) was no longer interested in pursuing the application for bail.
She had earlier refused to decline jurisdiction in the hearing of the bail application on the grounds that she was not biased, as was being alleged by Tsikata, the former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
Dismissing the application to disqualify herself, Mrs Justice Abban said Tsikata was given a fair chance to defend himself during the six-year trial.
Referring to Tsikata’s claim that she (the trial judge) allegedly had a conversation with a court registrar in which she said she had heard Tsikata had filed an application for bail and that she would not grant it if it was placed before her, she said, “Idle talk and gossip cannot determine the independence or otherwise of the judiciary,” adding, “I have dismissed the application to disqualify myself.”
Tsikata, who represented himself, then moved in and said he did not understand the ruling because he was seeking a mini trial on the conduct of the trial judge in another court.
He also stated that he could not move the motion for bail, since it would amount to what he termed “a trial within a trial”.
Tsikata further indicated that he had not, in any case, received a copy of the July 18, 2008 judgement which convicted him.
Responding to Tsikata’s application, a Principal State Attorney, Mr Edward Agyeman Duodu, prayed the court to dismiss the application if Tsikata was not ready to move the motion for bail pending appeal against his conviction.
Mrs Justice Abban then said she was adjourning the case sine die, but after several minutes of note taking, she announced to the court that since Tsikata was not willing to move his bail application, it was deemed that he was no longer interested in pursuing the application.
She then moved in to accordingly dismiss the application.
On June 23, 2008, Tsikata alleged that Mrs Justice Abban had said in Twi, "Ma jail no a ma jail no," literally meaning, "If I have jailed him, I have jailed him".
He, therefore, argued that she was not qualified to hear his bail application.
However, Mr Duodu said it was improper for Tsikata to raise such issues of bias before the court because he had raised the same issue before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
In a related development, the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 advised Tsikata and the Attorney-General to file the necessary processes by yesterday, July 30, 2008 to enable the court to hear Tsikata’s application which was seeking the court to quash the Fast Track High Court judgement which incarcerated him for five years.
The court, presided over by Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, had Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Ms Justice Rose Owusu, Mr Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie and Mr Justice Jones Dotse as its panel members.
The matter had been adjourned sine die on two different occasions after Tsikata had raised objection to the empanelling of Mr Justice S. A. Brobbey and Mr Justice Annin Yeboah.
At the court’s sitting on July 16, 2008, he sprang a surprise by telling the packed court that he objected to the empanelling of Mr Justice Brobbey to hear the matter because the judge had conducted investigations into allegations of bias against Mrs Justice Abban.
On July 22, 2008, Tsikata objected to the empanelling of Mr Justice Yeboah on the grounds that the judge was part of the panel at the Court of Appeal which heard his appeal regarding the immunity of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to testify for him.
The two judges have since been replaced with Mr Justices Asiamah and Baffoe-Bonnie.
The Accra Fast Track High Court on July 15, 2008 stayed proceedings in a mini trial requested by Tsikata to determine allegations of bias against Mrs Justice Abban.
That followed a motion filed by the Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, on the grounds that the reliefs being sought by Tsikata were the same as another application before the Supreme Court.
Tsikata, however, thought otherwise and insisted that his application before the superior court was different.
Tsikata filed a motion at the court to disqualify Mrs Justice Abban, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, from hearing his application for bail, pending the outcome of an appeal he had filed against his sentence.
He, therefore, sought a mini trial as consequent to a recommendation by the Chief Justice that his petition of bias against the trial judge could not be handled administratively, but by a court of competent jurisdiction.
However, before the case could be heard, the A-G filed a motion to stay proceedings, pending a similar issue before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, on June 25, 2008, suspended judgement on whether or not the IFC should be ordered to testify in the case in which Tsikata was accused of causing financial loss to the state.
That followed a request by Tsikata to the court to “arrest” its judgement and invoke its supervisory jurisdiction by quashing his conviction by the lower court.
Tsikata was, on June 18, 2008, found guilty on three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public property and sentenced to five years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently.
The former chief executive of the GNPC was charged in 2002 with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state through a loan he guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private cocoa producing company, on behalf of the GNPC and another count of misapplying GH¢2,000 of public property.
Valley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Francaise de Developement in 1991 but defaulted in the payment and the GNPC, which acted as the guarantor, was compelled to pay it in 1996.

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