Gyakye Quayson files motion for stay of proceedings in the High Court

Mr James Gyakye Quayson, the MP-elect for Assin North, has filed a motion on notice at the High Court for stay of proceedings, pending an appeal.

The applicant is praying the court for an order staying the proceedings in the court pending the determination of the appeal filed in the Court on June 27, 2023.

An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Maame Ekue Yanzuh on June 23, 2023, delivered a ruling dismissing the motion by the applicant herein for a review and/or variation of previous orders of the court dated June 16, 2023.

The applicant, dissatisfied with the ruling, has appealed against the ruling.

The Supreme Court initially nullified Quayson’s election as the Member of Parliament for Assin North over holding a Canadian citizenship and being a Ghanaian at the time he filed his nomination to contest the election in 2020.

He now faces charges of perjury and deceiving a public officer.

Upon a by-election conducted by the Electoral Commission, the people of Assin North Constituency re-elected him to represent them in Parliament.

The applicant said the appeal was likely to succeed in the light of the errors of law set out in the notice of appeal, including the endorsement, in effect, of prejudice to a fair trial clearly in breach of his constitutional rights to a fair trial.

He said the decision of the Court that evidence of extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks by the Attorney-General was not relevant to the determination of the application for review, was clearly in error.

“That the decision of the Court on June 23, 2023 was contradictory to the decision of the Court on June 21, 2023 when an objection by the Attorney-General to the supplementary affidavit filed in support of the application for review was dismissed on the basis that the averments in the supplementary affidavit were relevant to the allegations about the extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks of the Attorney-General,” he said.

He said the ruling of June 23, 2023 which was the subject-matter of the appeal filed, amounted to endorsing the conduct of the Attorney-General which was complained of in the application for review.

The applicant said apparently emboldened by the ruling of the Court on June 23, 2023, the extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks of the Attorney-General were escalated to the level of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He said at a campaign rally for the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the President made many prejudicial remarks, including some to the effect that the voters in the Assin North Constituency should not vote for a candidate who could end up in prison.
The said remarks were widely reported in the media.

The applicant said at the hearing of the application, Counsel for the accused person would seek leave of the Court to play an approximately one-and- half-minute clip of the remarks of the President at the said rally.

He said both the President and the Attorney-General were clearly craving for his conviction and imprisonment by fair or foul means without any regard whatsoever to the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights of the accused person.

He said the conduct of the Attorney-General was very similar to the conduct of the President when he was Attorney-General in 2001 when he initiated a similar trial of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata with a pre-determined outcome of convicting and imprisoning Mr Tsikata.

That Mr Tsikata found himself, on June 18, 2008, a day which had not even been set for continuation of his trial, much less conviction and sentence, convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

He said the conduct of the Attorney-General and his prejudicial utterances on the case on June 16, 2023, prior to his applying for a day-to-day trial of the case suggested that the outcome of the case had been predetermined hence he had cause to fear that his right to a fair trial was in jeopardy.

That the ruling of the Court on June 23 2023 already appears to have emboldened the further prejudicial remarks of the President.

He said his appeal sought to enforce his constitutional rights and to prevent a similar process of an unfair trial as Mr Tsikata experienced, which could lead to his being convicted at all costs by fair or foul means.

He said if proceedings were not stayed during the pendency of the said appeal, his right to a fair trial would be rendered nugatory.

The applicant said justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done and the pre-determination of the outcome of the current trial by the President and the Attorney-General glaringly amounted already to a miscarriage of justice.

All the above constitute exceptional circumstances on which I seek orders of the Court to stay the proceedings in the case till the appeal’s determination, he said.