Attorneys for the now-defunct Inter-ministerial Commission on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) secretary, Charles Bissue, is requesting copies of documents that led to the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) Office’s investigative decision against him.
Chief Attorney Nana Adjei Awuah on Monday 12 June told the Supreme Court that he could not make a petition asking the court to restrict OSP unless the court received the document. “To help the court do justice, all relevant facts and evidence must be provided to the court.
“After we filed the complaint and requested the restraining order, the need for the document we sought became apparent through an article by the former special counsel. It’s not that we knew from the start that we didn’t give it.
This is the document that begins the entire investigation process. This is a document that invokes the special prosecutor’s powers to investigate the plaintiff. In other words, without this petition, with all due respect, he wouldn’t even be in court. ” I said.
OSP lawyers led by Dr. Isidore Tuffuor disagree with this view. Dr Tuffuor asserts that there is no link between the aforementioned documents requested by Mr Bissue and the petition for the ban. He asserted that nowhere in the case file prepared by Mr. Bissue did not refer to these documents.
“This injunction request is based on the claim statement. The applicant’s case is determined by his plea. And those pleas informed the ban. In his defense, there was absolutely no mention of the document he was asking the first defendant to produce.
After submitting his application, he came across another piece of information, which they seek to be part of their profile, they know what to do. You cannot submit production requests. There’s really nothing connecting the two movements. He declared.
The court, presided over by Judge Olivia Obeng Owusu, said it adjourned the trial because Mr Awuah was ill, not because it asserted that an application for a restraining order could not be made unless Mr Bissue received the documents. The case was therefore adjourned to July 4.
Charles Bissue is in court alleging that his rights were abused by the OSP due to the way he conducted his investigations following the release of a Anas Aremyaw Anas investigative documentary.
He argued that the issues raised in the documentary had already been investigated by the police and therefore should not be re-investigated by another investigative agency.
The OSP is closely following Mr. Bissue in connection with an ongoing investigation into IMCIM’s activities.
