James Quayson trial to proceed daily from July 4 –Court rules

The High Court trying the criminal case of the embattled NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson has ruled that the case hearing will be done daily from July 4, 2023.

This follows the court’s dismissal of his variation motion which sought to challenge the June 16, order of the court.

In the last court sitting, Mr. Quayson was permitted by the court to absent himself from today’s sitting following a plea by his lead counsel.

Subsequent to the court’s ruling on June 16, which ordered the accused’s case to be tried on a daily basis from June 20, 21, 22, and 23, his counsel filed a motion to challenge that.

Moving the motion at the last sitting, lead counsel for Mr. Quayson insisted that by offering himself for election, his client was on a national assignment.

However, on the part of the AG, the grant of the motion would lead to discrimination in that all manner of persons including farmers and even public school teachers appear before the court on criminal charges and do not choose when to attend or not.

You may also recall that the accused’s team led by Tsatsu Tsikata, described a previous comment by the Attorney General as prejudicial, unjustified, and insulting and had thus made a complaint to that effect in their supplementary affidavit.

Ruling

In her ruling, Justice Mary Yanzuh noted that a case for a review had not been made and thus the June 16 order for the daily hearing was within the law.

On the complaint of prejudicial comment by the Attorney General, Her Ladyship noted that those statements were not relevant to the issue at hand since new information had been provided by the accused to warrant a review.

Therefore considering the fact that June 27 is the by-election; the 28th is a holiday for the Eid-ul-Adha celebration; and the 30th is Martys Day, the presiding judge adjourned to June 29th.

In addition to this, Justice Yanzuh indicated that the case would be heard on a daily basis from July 4, 2023.