Counsel for the former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Charles Bissue, have requested documents the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) is relying on for the investigation of their client.
Charles Bissue earlier filed an injunction against the OSP from further investigating him, citing human rights abuse.
The Special Prosecutor named the Secretary of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining as a person of interest following a documentary by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
In court on Monday, June 12, lead counsel for Mr Bissue Nana Adjei Awuah argued that he would be unable to file his motions for the injunction if the documents hadn’t been provided to the High Court by the OSP.
“In order to assist the court to do justice, all the relevant facts and evidence must be available to the court,” he said.
“After we filed our suit and the motion for injunction, the necessity of the document we seek became apparent because of an article by the former Special Prosecutor. It was not as though we knew of it from the outset that we failed to raise it. What document are we referring to? It is the document that commenced the whole investigation process.
“It is the document that invoked the powers of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the applicant. In other words, but for that petition, very respectfully, he will not even be in court,” he noted.
But lawyers for the Office of Special Prosecutor begged to differ.
According to the lead counsel, Dr Tuffuor, the two documents are not connected in any way.
“This application for injunction is founded on the statement of claim. The applicant’s case is determined by his pleadings and these pleadings informed the injunction. In his pleadings, there is absolutely nothing referring to the document he is seeking the first defendant to produce.
“After filing his case, he comes across some other piece of information that they seek to make part of their case, they know what to do. You cannot file a motion to produce. There is really nothing that joins the two motions,” Dr Tuffuor argued.
Presiding judge of General Jurisdiction 4 of the Accra High Court Olivia Obeng Owusu adjourned the case to Tuesday, July 4 after counsel for Charles Bissue told the court he is unwell.
Charles Bissue is additionally being investigated by the OSP as part of investigations into the report of the IMCIM by former Environment Minister Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
By Laud Adu-Asare |3news.com|Ghana