The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has filed an urgent application at the Court of Appeal seeking a stay of execution of the judgment that acquitted and discharged former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu.

The application was filed on Thursday, July 30, hours after a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Madam Tamakloe-Attionu’s conviction and 10-year prison sentence, setting aside all the charges against her.

The motion, filed by Principal State Attorney Hilda W. Craig on behalf of the Attorney-General, is asking the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal in Accra to suspend the effect of the judgment until the state’s intended appeal at the Supreme Court is determined.

In an affidavit supporting the application, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Owusu-Agyemang argued that allowing the acquittal to take effect immediately could render the state’s appeal ineffective.

The state maintains that the Court of Appeal’s decision contains “material errors of law and fact” and resulted in what it describes as a substantial miscarriage of justice.

According to the affidavit, Madam Tamakloe-Attionu was first arraigned before the High Court in February 2019 on charges including stealing and causing financial loss to the state.

During the trial, she left Ghana for the United States, leading the High Court to continue proceedings in her absence.

The High Court convicted her in absentia on April 16, 2024, and sentenced her to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.

She later appealed the conviction, while the Attorney-General’s Office initiated extradition proceedings that eventually led to her return to Ghana in June 2026.

Following her return, she began serving her sentence at the Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison before the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction on July 30, 2026.

The appellate court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and criticised the trial court’s handling of the matter, including what it described as a failure to properly apply the constitutional presumption of innocence.

However, the Attorney-General is challenging that decision, arguing that the High Court’s judgment had legal merit.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Thursday, Dr Ayine said the state remained convinced that the original conviction was properly grounded.

“I believe that the judgment of the High Court had merit and that the United States District Court that extradited her to Ghana had a basis for making a determination that she was a proper subject for extradition.”

He added that the state was studying the full judgment to determine its grounds of appeal.

“I have a soft copy of the judgment. I'm yet to peruse it and then come to a firm conclusion as to what will be our grounds of appeal.”

The Attorney-General has already directed state prosecutors to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court.

The application for a stay of execution has been served on the Registrar of the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division, Madam Tamakloe-Attionu at the Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison, and the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service.

Madam Tamakloe-Attionu had faced 78 charges, including conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial loss to the state, money laundering and procurement-related offences.

The Court of Appeal’s 94-page judgment identified several legal and evidential issues with the prosecution’s case, including findings that the burden of proof had improperly shifted to the accused person.

The Court of Appeal is now expected to determine whether to grant the stay of execution while the Supreme Court considers the state’s appeal.