Supreme Court Judge, Justice Yoni Kulendi has disclosed why the Supreme Court prohibited the judge presiding over the contempt trial of Kennedy Agyepong.
He said Justice Amos Wuntah Wuni was asked to discontinue hearing the case because he had made comments that showed his mind was made up on the case even before the MP would open his defence.
Justice Amos Wuntah Wuni summoned the Assin Central MP to answer charges of contempt for allegedly going on live television to use unprintable words on the High Court judge.
This is the first time Justice Kulendi, who wrote the Unanimous opinion of the court is explaining the judgment publicly.
"The simple reason for which we prohibited him from hearing the case was that the Judge said, you come, and prove that you are not in Contempt of this court otherwise you will be severely punished.
“Now for me as a judge, it means that this judge has already made up his mind about the degree of punishment you're going to suffer. A judge is not allowed to do that", he explained.
Justice Yoni Kulendi also explained that the Supreme Court on that occasion was not determining the guilt or otherwise of Kennedy Agyepong.
"We were not supposed to determine whether he was guilty of contempt or not, we were supposed to determine whether the judge who was trying him for contempt, had conducted himself in a way, said or written things, which showed that he had lost an impartial judicial mind to be fair to the man who was standing before him"
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision ordered that the contempt case against Kennedy Agyapong be transferred to a different Judge.
According to the court, Justice Amos Wuntah Wuni was prohibited from hearing the matter any further.
This was after lawyers for the MP had accused the Judge of demonstrating hostility towards them.
The MP on September 18, 2020, filed for a review application at the Supreme Court to stop contempt proceedings against him and also quash the order of summons for him to appear before the court as the High Court had no jurisdiction to do so.
Although Justice Wuni had argued that nothing barred him from proceeding with the case.
The case was heard by Justices Baffoe Bonnie, Yaw Appau, Gabriel Pwamang, Amadu Tanko, and Yoni Kulendi.
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