High Court shoots down Gyakye Quayson again; Daily trial continues

A second attempt by the embattled Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, to get the Accra High Court to rescind its decision to hear his criminal trial on daily basis, has been shot down.

On Tuesday, July 18, 2023, the High Court dismissed a request by lawyers of the MP to put the trial on hold until the determination of two applications at the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal to quash the trial court’s decision to hear his criminal trial on a daily basis.

This was after the Attorney General , Godfred Yeboah Dame, argued that none of the applications filed acted as stay of proceedings nor compels the court to stop the hearing of the matter.

Consequently, the trial continued with the cross-examination of the first prosecution witness of the prosecution, Richard Takyi-Mensah.

Charges
Mr Quayson is facing charges in relation to some alleged offences in the run-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.

He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.

The case for the prosecution is that Mr Quayson made a false statement to the Passport Office that he did not hold a passport from another country when he applied for a Ghanaian Passport.

In addition, the prosecution has accused Mr Quayson of making a false declaration to the Electoral Commission to the effect that he did not owe allegiance to a foreign country when he filed to contest as a candidate for the Assin North seat.

Cross-examination
During cross-examination on Tuesday, counsel for the accused, Tsatsu Tsikata pointed out to the witness that the accused was cleared by the Electoral Commission to contest the 2020 parliamentary election despite a complaint before the commission of the accused holding allegiance to another country other than Ghana.

In his answer, the witness said to the best of his knowledge, the decision of the commission was based on information put before it by the accused.