Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has revealed that James Gyakye Quasyon’s attorneys are holding up his criminal trial.

Gyakye Quayson’s attorneys had previously petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent the High Court from hearing his case until the Court of Appeal’s appeal had been decided. However, Mr. Tuah-Yeboah asserted that his team was prepared to manage the circumstance.

According to Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, the court was only informed this morning that the Gyakye Quayson and his lawyers have filed an application at the Court of Appeal seeking a stay of proceedings and then an application at the Supreme Court seeking to quash and prohibit the judge from hearing the case.

“Per practice, filing an application does not automatically stay proceedings. So we made the point that notwithstanding the fact that these applications had been filed, the judge has the right to proceed to hear the case by asking that cross-examination be done. The judge will be giving her ruling on that on Tuesday.
“There is an attempt to delay proceedings through the legal process, which we say is fine. It is within their right to use the legal procedure to fight their course but that doesn’t mean that when they file such applications, the court must wait for them for those applications to move from the Appellate court or the Supreme Court. So we are concerned about that but we are ready.”
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah

He highlighted that the court is a place for law, not politics, as he had done last week, and as a result, the law has been addressed in court today as well. Furthermore, he stated that the judge will inform the court on Tuesday whether he concurs or disagrees with the Attorney General.

The High Court has therefore adjourned his proceedings to Tuesday, July 18 by which time the Supreme Court may have determined the application.

Ramifications Of Applications Discussed

According to the deputy Attorney General, Gyakye Quayson’s attorneys applied for a stay of proceedings at the Court of Appeal, which was followed by another application for certiorari at the Supreme Court (a writ or order by which a higher court considers a case tried in a lower court).

He underlined that the court eventually permitted the two attorneys from each side to discuss the ramifications of those two applications after the cases were filed.

“It turned out that from the side of the NDC, Gyakye Quayson’s lawyers, we were putting out the argument that we could not proceed with the trial once these applications are pending before higher courts than the High Court, particularly the application for certiorari which is before the Supreme Court.”
Alfred Tuah-Yeboah

After the court hearing on Friday, July 14, one of Mr. Gyakye Quayson’s attorneys, Abraham Amaliba, spoke with reporters and stated that the lawyers for Mr. Quayson indicated that a stay of proceedings was necessary because disclosures were not fully made in accordance with the Republic v. Baffoe Bonney case.

According to Abraham Amaliba, the attorneys for Gyakye Quayson requested relief because the Attorney-General did not fully disclose information to the attorneys for Gyakye Quayson. As a result, Amaliba said that there is a need for the Supreme Court to decide this issue because the Attorney-General did not fully disclose information.

“The rules are that you must fully disclose but in this case, the AG did some half disclosures,” he added.