Poloo seeks bail from jail
By tomorrow Wednesday April 21, the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court is expected to hear the bail application filed by lawyers for convicted actress Rosemond Brown popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, pending her appeal against her custodial sentence.
Poloo’s lawyer, Andrews Kudzo Vortia, yesterday on Monday April 19, filed a notice of appeal and application for bail against her custodial sentence.
She was convicted to a 90-days jail term by an Accra Circuit Court for posting her nude pictures together with her son on social media, to celebrate his seventh birthday in June last year.
Akuapem Poloo was convicted based on her own plea of being guilty to three counts of publication of obscene material and two counts of engaging in domestic violence.
Not satisfied with the custodial sentence, her lawyers have filed an appeal to get her out of jail but are seeking for bail while the appeal is being heard.
The lawyers have opined that the sentencing was harsh and a non-custodial sentence would have been best.
They argue, among other points that: “…That the ninety (90) days sentence is so short that if the applicant is not admitted to bail immediately by the time the appeal is heard, she would have finished serving the sentence.
“That the Convict/Appellant pleaded guilty simpliciter and was convicted on her own plea and on all counts and sentenced to ninety (90) days IHL all counts to run concurrently.
“That I am advised by Counsel and verily believe so to be true that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice and that the trial judge erred in considering only aggravating factor in arriving at her decision,” part of the motion for bail stated.
The affidavit in support of the motion stated that the guilty plea and show of remorse by the Appellant should be taken into consideration.
“That the Appellant is a single parent and a young offender and as such, her first brawl with the law, ought not to have been met with a custodial sentence as the first option in the circumstances of the case.
“That the child whose right the Appellant is said to have violated, which the law is seeking to protect should not become the victim of circumstances by reason of the hash custodial sentence imposed on the mother by the trial court.”
Andrews Kudzo Vortia would be arguing that “due to the overcrowded nature of our prisons by reason of which the State over the years has employed measures to decongest the prisons, including the introduction of the justice for all program by the Honorable CJ, whereby hearings are conducted occasionally in the prisons to deal with lesser offenses; and more so, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, we verily believe that noncustodial sentence would have been more appropriate in the circumstances of this case.”
