The Supreme Court will today give its verdict on the contempt of court charges levelled against former Deputy Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine.
This follows an order by the court to the member of the legal team of the petitioner in the ongoing 2020 election petition, to publicly apologise for some scandalous remark he made against the court.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, February 16, Dr Ayine had accused the Court panel of having a pre-determined agenda to rule against the 2020 NDC presidential candidate, John Mahama.
Dr Ayine who was unhappy after the panel in a unanimous decision dismissed an application by Mr Mahama to reopen his case, said he was surprised the panel is trying to expunge four of the five issues raised by the petitioner.
“These are all germane issues under the constitution and laws of Ghana and to reduce the petition into a single issue petition is rather unfortunate and smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner in this matter,” the Bolga East MP said.
But admitting his error before the Justices of the Supreme Court on February 22, Dr. Ayine said he has submitted a letter indicating his remorse and a retraction of the statement.
The Chief Justice, Anin Yeboah subsequently ordered Dr. Ayine to render the apology through the same medium used to sacandalise the court before Thursday, February 25, 2021.
“We accept the apology of the counsel for the contemnor, but we however order that the contemnor purges his contempt by retracting the scandalous statements on the very same medium before Thursday, February 25, 2021, when the court will reconvene to hear the contempt case,” Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah said.
Obeying the orders by the court, Dr. Ayine speaking to the media, explained that it was not his intention to scandalise the court.
According to him, he always tried to address the media after a hearing without seeking to attribute acts of impropriety to the Supreme Court.
“But on hindsight, I actually crossed the line in suggesting that the court had a predetermined agenda among others to rule against the petitioner.”
“My attention was drawn to this fact immediately after the press briefing by Frank Davies, to whom I am grateful.
“I wish to unreservedly apologise to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ghana as well as the justices who sat on that day.”
Dr Ayine also retracted the words he used while addressing the press in their entirety stating that “there was no intention on my part to impugn their integrity.”
“I am hoping that my apology and retraction will be accepted by Their Lordships and the matter will come to an end,” he concluded.
At today's hearing, the Chief Justice, Anin-Yeboah will determine whether the charges would be struck out or the former Deputy Attorney General should be punished.
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