Friday, May 28, 2010

Court issues ultimatum to BNI Director

Friday, May 28, 2010 (Page 3 Lead)

THE Human Rights Court has threatened to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) if he fails to appear before it on June 24, 2010 to answer contempt charges levelled against him by a former Minister of Information, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, and his family.
The court held that the BNI Director, Mr Yaw Donkor, had, on numerous occasions, failed to appear before it, thereby creating the impression that he was not answerable to the court.
“If he fails to appear on the next adjourned date, I will have no option but to issue a bench warrant for his arrest,” the presiding judge, Mr Justice U.P. Dery, ruled.
Two other respondents, Josephine Gandawiri and Stephen Abrokwa, who were sued alongside Mr Donkor for preventing the applicants from travelling outside the country on two occasions without recourse to a court order, will also face the wrath of the court if they fail to appear on the next adjourned date.
The court, accordingly, adjourned the matter to June 24, 2010.
Mr Justice Dery’s ruling stemmed from the expression of dismay at the continuous failure of Mr Donkor to appear before the court by counsel for the applicants, Nene Amegatcher.
According to counsel, that attitude had the tendency to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
He, therefore, prayed the court to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the respondents if they failed to appear on the next adjourned date.
He further suggested that the prosecution give an undertaking to the effect that it would ensure the appearance of the three on the next adjourned date.
“If, on the next adjourned date, the respondents refuse to appear, we will have no option but to apply for the cohesive force of the court to be applied,” Nene Amegatcher suggested.
However, a Chief State Attorney, Mrs Helen Kwawukume, said she could undertake on behalf of the other respondents but not Mr Donkor because she had never set eyes on him.
According to her, Mr Donkor was on a national assignment, attending to the Bunkprugu/Yoyoo conflict situation which resulted in a refugee situation in neighbouring Togo.
Touching on the absence of the other two respondents, Mrs Kwawukume explained that she had earlier spoken to them and they had indicated their readiness to appear before the court yesterday and so she could not state why they were absent.
Responding, Nene Amegatcher said it was untenable for Mrs Kwawukume to state that she could only undertake on behalf of the two respondents because she was counsel for all three respondents.
Mr Asamoah-Boateng and his wife, Zuleika, were present in court.
The need for Mr Donkor and the two other respondents to appear in person emanated from an October 29, 2009 ruling delivered by Mr Justice Dery, who declined to grant a request by the A-G’s Department for the court to hear the matter in camera in order to protect the identities of the respondents.
The High Court had ruled that it had carefully studied the Securities and Intelligence Act (Act 526), which clearly spells out the rights of the police and the BNI as the same and for that reason “the BNI cannot be given special treatment”. The state appealed against the High Court’s decision but the appeal was thrown out by the Court of Appeal on December 15, 2009, making it mandatory for the three to appear in open court to answer contempt charges.
The contempt action was instituted when the four applicants were prevented from travelling outside the country on June 14, 2009 without any court order or warrant, following which they filed an application seeking an injunction to restrain the BNI from further preventing them from travelling without a court order.
While the application was pending, the applicants claimed the BNI again disregarded the action and prevented them from travelling on another date.

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