Running mate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has opened up on signing a petition for the Montie 3 convicts.

The academic who was among persons who signed for their release said her decision to petition then-president John Mahama was not an endorsement of their action but rather, an appeal to the judges to temper justice with mercy.

"In the judicial process, there is something called pardon or clemency; even in recent times, a lot of people have been pardoned. And that is what we called for," she said.

Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman was among persons who spoke in defence of the Montie 3 after they were convicted for contempt of court.

The three were charged with contempt after slandering and instigating hate speech against then Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Woode.

They were put before the court and given custodial sentences and there were calls for their release after they served part of their sentence.

A petition was opened for signatures to appeal for their release and many supporters of the NDC including bigwigs like the Prof Naana Opoku-Agyemang who was then the Education Minister.

However, after her nomination, as she has been frequently criticised for adding her voice to calls for the release of the three, especially when the attack was against female judges.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang nonetheless says her defence was not in support of the act but a call for the court to have mercy on the three, insisting that the action did not hamper the proceedings of the court in any way.

"So are they saying that if someone commits an offense and they are being taken away and they run to you to apologise on their behalf, as a mother will you throw them away?

"Or that when you go and apologise on their behalf it means you endorse what they had done? no.

"If your child smashes the mirror of somebody’s car and you go and apologise does it mean you support what your child did? Mahama could have covered them but he didn’t do so, he allowed the law to work; what do we see today?”