High Court Assures Strict Reliance on Evidence in Adu-Boahene Trial, Declining to Expunge Prosecution Briefs
The Accra High Court has affirmed that it will rely strictly on verified trial evidence and disregard any prosecution assertions unsupported by the record in the ongoing trial involving former National Signals Bureau (NSB) Director-General, Kwabena Adu-Boahene, and his co-accused.
Presiding Judge Francis Apangabuno Achibonga delivered the decision following an application by Adu-Boahene, his wife Angela Adjei-Boateng, and Advantage Solutions Limited. The defense sought to strike out specific portions of the written submissions prepared by Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, contending that the documents contained fabricated claims and misrepresented witness testimony regarding a GH¢49.1 million cyber-defense procurement case.
Moving the application, lead defense counsel Samuel Atta Akyea submitted that the prosecution failed to file an affidavit in opposition, leaving the defense’s claims of record distortion legally uncontroverted. He argued that allowing unproven assertions to remain in the prosecution’s filings risked misdirecting the court and breaching legal ethics rules governing counsel conduct. In response, the Deputy Attorney-General raised a preliminary objection, maintaining that written addresses are argument rather than testimony and that the court remains the sole custodian of its official proceedings.
In his ruling, Justice Achibonga dismissed the application to excise the disputed paragraphs, explaining that sifting through written briefs at an interlocutory stage would inappropriately pre-judge the pending submission of no case to answer. However, the court explicitly reassured all parties that written arguments do not constitute evidence and cannot alter or supplement the official trial record.
The court reiterated that its final determination on whether the accused must open their defense will be grounded strictly in sworn witness statements and properly admitted exhibits. A decision on the substantive submission of no case to answer remains pending subject to judicial sitting arrangements.
Source: Thepressradio.com
