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Dr Arthur Kennedy has justified his claims that the posture assumed by the Supreme Court Judges with regards to how they are exercising their powers on contempt of Court is troubling.
The former Presidential aspirant wrote an open letter to the Supreme Court panel hearing the election petition after the Court sanctioned Sammy Awuku, the opposition New Patriotic Party’s Deputy Communication Director, for describing the Court as “hypocritical and selective”.
Sammy Awuku was summoned to the Court, made to retract his comments and barred from coming to the Court for the remainder of the proceedings.
Speaking on the Super Morning Show, Monday July 1, Dr Kennedy said the posture of the Judges seems to undermine freedom of expression in the country.
“While there may be actions that may be contemptuous, we need to be aware of where we are in our nation’s democratic development”, he said.
A day after Sammy Awuku's sanction, the Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Ken Korankye and two communicators of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kweku Boahen and Stephen Atubiga, have also been summoned to appear before the Court on Tuesday July 2 for alleged contemptuous publications and comments.
But Arthur Kennedy believes that whilst the Court may be justified in summoning and reprimanding people who make contemptuous comments, that power could easily be abused in the future.
In a related development, Prof Kwaku Asare, has petitioned the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood, to restrain the panel of Judges from parading people for contempt.
In the petition, the Prof asked the Her Ladyship Georgina Theodora Wood to “halt immediately the on-going exercise of using the Supreme Court as a vehicle to intimidate those who hold strong opinions about the conduct of the case, whether or not such opinions are logical, fanciful, mistaken or otherwise ridiculous”.
But Commenting on the Super Morning Show, Legal Practitioner, Mr Samson Lardy Ayenini said although legitimate, the Professor’s petition is misplaced.
He said the Chief Justice does not have the powers to intervene in the trial by instructing the panel of Judges “to do or not to do something” as the Prof is demanding from her.
Even if she were on the panel, her vote will only be one.
The Chief Justice's duties are only administrative, he added.
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