[ 2016-07-29 ]

Mahama ‘can’t pardon’ Montie trio – Lawyer
Following the opening of a petition book to
persuade President John Dramani Mahama to pardon
the 3 imprisoned Montie FM panelists, a private
legal petitioner, Denis Adjei Dwomoh, has
suggested that the president might not have the
power to free the convicts in this instance.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase,
alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months
in jail on Wednesday, after they were found guilty
of contempt charges.

Several persons, including the Foreign Affairs
Minister, Hanna Tetteh as well as her party the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) have stated
that the sentence handed to the three is harsh.

The lawyers for the Montie FM panelists say they
intend to petition President Mahama to pardon
their clients prompting the opening of the
petition book today [Thursday].

The book, opened by a group calling itself the
Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP), has garnered
several signatures including those of high-profile
government officials including the Minister of
Education in charge of Tertiary, Sam Okudzeto
Ablakwa, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and
Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare and the Head
of the Presidential Delivery Unit, Valerie
Sawyerr.

However, according to Denis Adjei Dwomoh, their
efforts may be in vain as the president might not
have the constitutional mandate to grant the three
men their freedom.

He explained on Eyewitness News that the section
of the constitution that gave the president the
power to release incarcerated persons applies to
only criminal cases and not the case of the Montie
FM trio.

“The power that you are seeking for the
president to exercise is under Article 72 of the
1992 constitution. It talks about the President
acting in consultation with the Council of State,
to grant to a person convicted of an offence a
pardon.”

“When the constitution in Article 72 talks about
an offence, it relates to a criminal offence and
when you go to section 17 of the transitional
provisions of the constitution, it quite clearly
throws light on the fact that when the
constitution contemplates offences under Article
72, it’s about criminal offence. When it comes
to the curtailment of the liberty of the
individual, so long as it did not relate to they
being convicted for a criminal offence under the
law of Ghana, but in terms of a court exercising
its powers and jurisdiction, the president cannot
exercise that power because the qualification must
relate to an offence as defined in the criminal
code or any other statute that has been so
defined.”

One of the lawyers for the trio, George Loh, has
dismissed these suggestions, stating that it was
well within the rights of his clients to seek the
president’s intervention on their situation.

“It is not illegal or unconstitutional for
citizens of this country to make an appeal to the
president to show mercy, powers that he has under
the constitution.He has done it several time for
people on health grounds, during popular
anniversaries, national holidays so what will be
so different if an appeal is made to the president
and by his assessment and in consultation with
the Council of State, he thinks that something
must be done and therefore as father of the nation
he shows compassion on his children” he said on
Eyewitness News.

Some members of the NDC, who many believe the
station sympathizes with, on Thursday protested
at the party’s headquarters requesting a
Presidential pardon for the the three or risk
losing their votes in the December polls.

‘Montie boys’ jailed and fined

The Montie FM trio, were also ordered to pay an
amount of 10, 000 cedis each or risk serving an
extra month in jail.

The directors of the station, were also fined by
the court for failing to prevent the incident on
their platform.

Network Broadcasting Limited, and Zeze Media,
which owns the frequency on which Montie FM is
broadcast, were ordered to pay Ghc30,000 each.

In presenting the sentences, the Presiding judge,
Sophia Akuffo, stated that the two panelists had
willfully attacked the Chief Justice and lowered
the authority of the court by insisting that they
will not accept its judgment on a controversial
matter of the voter’s register.

Source - citifmonline.com

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