Mzbel and friends convicted

April 11, 2012 (Front page) The Motor Court in Accra yesterday convicted Mzbel, a popular female musician, and two others for traffic-related offences. Mzbel, known in private life as Nana Akua Amoah, Maxwell Mensah, a businessman, and Emmanuel Edem Lordzoh, a student, were consequently fined a total of GH¢1,600 or in default face various terms in prison. The three were arrested in June 2011 and put before court for assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer from executing his duties. They had pleaded not guilty to the offences but changed their pleas when they appeared before the court in Accra Tuesday. Their lawyer, Mr Addo Atuah, had pleaded for mitigation but the prosecutor in the case, Chief Inspector Dora Seiwaah, opposed the plea and argued that Mzbel had released a new song taunting police officers. Mr Atuah, however, reminded the court that the convicts were not in court in connection with a song allegedly taunting police officers. He said his clients were first offenders because they had never had a brush with the law, as well as apologised to the affected police officer. The court took counsel’s submission into consideration and fined the convicts. They paid the imposed fine and walked off as free persons some few minutes after the court had imposed the fine. Mzbel and the others were first arraigned before the court on June 6, 2011 but were refused bail and remanded in custody. They, however, went to the High Court and were granted bail. They had been reporting themselves to the court since June 2011 and during the court’s sitting in Accra Tuesday, they changed their plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty’. Mzbel had been charged on two counts of assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer from executing his duties. She faced an additional count of abetment of crime. Mensah was charged with four counts of unauthorised parking, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer, while Lordzoh was charged with driving without licence. The convicts were said to have committed the offence with a Mitsubishi vehicle, with registration number GR 9470-11, at Tudu in Accra about 12.40 p.m. on June 4, 2011.