The court unanimously ruled that there was no evidence linking him to the crime and that the trial judge had misinterpreted the evidence, erroneously stating that the accused had entered a guilty plea. However, according to court records, he had actually pleaded not guilty, which should have warranted a full trial.
Businessman Yaw Appiah was tried at the High Court alongside five others for a robbery that occurred in 2006 at Teshie-Nungua. The victims, Richard Kwakye, his wife Theresa Kwakye, and their children, were returning home after seeing off a relative at the airport when the robbery took place. The robbers, armed with machetes and other weapons, stole their mobile phones as well as cash in cedi and dollar denominations.
Prosecutors claimed they called some of the stolen phone numbers, and the responses they received led them to locate Yaw Appiah and others in parts of Accra. The other convicts allegedly mentioned Yaw Appiah as one of the participants in the robbery.
The High Court sentenced him to 45 years in prison, ruling that there was strong circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime. His sentence commenced in June 2011.
Since the appeal period had long expired, his lawyers recently sought permission from the Court of Appeal to contest the conviction, which the court granted. His lawyers argued that none of the witnesses had identified Yaw Appiah as one of the robbers.
They also pointed out that despite court records clearly indicating a not guilty plea—which should have resulted in a full trial—the High Court had wrongly concluded that Yaw Appiah had pleaded guilty.
State prosecutors admitted that Yaw Appiah might not have been involved in the robbery. They also acknowledged that the trial judge had made an error in stating that he had entered a guilty plea. Furthermore, they agreed that the judge was wrong in claiming that one of the robbery victims had identified him. They concluded that the available evidence was insufficient and did not link the defendant to the crime.
After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeal found that none of the robbery victims had identified Yaw Appiah. The court also noted that during police questioning, Yaw Appiah had categorically denied any involvement in the phone calls and the allegations made by one of the convicted individuals.
The court emphasized that a confession by one accused person cannot be used as evidence against a co-accused, as the confessor might simply be trying to deflect blame.
“Anything at all said by any of the co-accused persons against the appellant, as long as the appellant did not admit to the truth of that statement, was clearly not binding on the appellant, and no reasonable inference could have been made. The evidence on record had not met the threshold of reasonable doubt to have merited the conviction of the appellant,” a report by 3news.com quoted the court as saying.
Regarding the High Court’s ruling, the Court of Appeal stated:
“The trial judge completely misapprehended the evidence presented by the prosecution. Had proper attention been paid to the evidence led by the appellant, he would not have been required to open his defense.”
The court noted that the fact that Yaw Appiah had been in custody since 2006 for a crime with no evidence linking him to it was a tragedy. It, therefore, set aside the conviction and sentence.
Yaw Appiah recounts the harrowing and painful 19 years he spent in prison due to wrongful imprisonment, sharing the immense hardship he endured before the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged him…
Legal Correspondent: Murtala Inusah (@MurtalaInusah)#GHOneNews #EIBNetwork… pic.twitter.com/EtlTHRRRFQ
— GHOne TV (@ghonetv) March 7, 2025
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
