Lawyers for Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson have insisted that their client did not issue Letters of Credit or authorized same in the ongoing ambulance case at the court.
According to them, that particular charge is baseless and should be dismissed.
The lawyers in their legal submissions to the court, argued that the prosecution has failed to adduce sufficient evidence to back this charge.
They have thus asked the court to acquit and discharge their client.
“We submit that, to the extent that the evidence on record does not support but contradict these material allegations in the particulars of offences for Counts 1 and 5, the prosecution has failed to adduce sufficient evidence on key ingredients of the offences in Counts 1 and 5. Consequently, A1 must be acquitted and discharged.“
Contrary to the assertions in the particulars of offence of Counts 1 and 5 that AI ‘authorized’ or ‘caused’ irrevocable letters of credit to be established it is clear from the evidence on record that AI never ‘authorized’ or ‘caused irrevocable’ letters of credit to be established nor did AI act in any manner without due cause and authorization.
“Exhibits A and B1, which bear the signature of AI were transmitted to the Bank of Ghana under the authority of and on behalf of the Minister of Finance as confirmed by Exhibit 5 for A1….That claim is patently false,” the lawyers argued in their detailed submissions to the court.
They also stated that the prosecution of Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson is an abuse of prosecutorial powers by the state.
According to them, the state was acting like a Leviathan, who has no regard for the rights and liberties of its citizens.
“We maintain that, in a reasoned decision, a court has a duty to clearly set out the legal principles and the evidence upon which the decision is based.
“In addition, an adversarial system like ours, where the role of the court is primarily that of an umpire, places an additional duty on the Court to explain why it prefers one piece of evidence or argument to the other after carefully weighing the evidence relied on by the prosecution and the defence,” Ato Forson’s lawyers added in their legal submission at the court.
