The Director of Legal Affairs of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has questioned the High Court’s decision to hear the perjury and forgery trial of James Gyakye Quayson on a day-to-day basis.

Speaking on Top Story on JoyFM, Mr Amaliba, citing Article 19 of the constitution, said that the court must allow defendants and their lawyers enough time to defend themselves during the trial process.

“If you impose daily hearings on the accused person, when will his lawyers retire, and then have consultations as well as the briefing, and then plan for the next day?” he quizzed.

The legal practitioner also noted that with the Assin North by-election coming off in about a week, it is unfair for the court to approve a daily trial when he has to be present in the constituency to campaign.

“You have a situation where the lawyers are saying that this is a national assignment, because, under the constitution, democratic practices are considered as national assignments. For you to have a situation where the accused person will be coming to court every day when we know that in less than five days, he will be standing for election is not fair.”

Mr Amaliba also criticised the Attorney-General for pushing for the daily trial, adding that there are many cases that require better urgency than that of Mr Quayson, and yet none of them have been given that attention.

“There's nothing more important than when a person's conduct has led to the deaths of Ghanaians, people losing their jobs and people losing their money. I'm talking about NAM1 (Nana Appiah Mensah). If you ask the people of Ghana today, they should vote for which of the two should have that trial, I'm sure you know that Ghanaians will go for NAM1.”

This comes after the High Court last week ruled that the perjury and forgery trial of James Gyakye Quayson will be heard on a day-to-day basis starting Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

Despite the protest of his lawyers, the Attorney General argued that it is in the interest of justice for the matter to be expeditious.

The court agreed with this view and fixed the hearing for June 20 to June 23.

But, the lawyers for Mr Quayson, on June 20, filed processes urging the court to review this decision.

Mr Tsikata on Tuesday urged the court to adjourn proceedings to June 28 to afford him ample time to campaign.

Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah told the court his office had not been served with the court processes. He asked that the trial continues and that the arguments against the day-to-day hearing can be dealt with on Wednesday.

This did not sit well with Mr. Tsikata who pointed out that they had serious reservations about how the AG’s office was handling the case.

Read more: Gyakye Quayson trial: Insulting remarks by Attorney General unacceptable – Tsatsu Tsikata tells court