"My story on government dealing in drugs was without malice"- Quarcoo
"My story on government dealing in drugs was without malice"- Quarcoo
Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 July '99,
Eben Quarcoo, former editor of the Free Press, told a circuit tribunal in Accra on Wednesday that a publication he made in 1996 that the government was dealing in cocaine was without malice.
Rather, he said, the publication was a "social and moral assessment" of the government and of public interest.
Quarcoo said this when he was being cross-examined by Mr Martin Amidu, Deputy Attorney-General, in a case in which he is charged with making a publication likely to injure the reputation of the country.
With him in the dock is Nana Kofi Coomson, publisher of the Ghanaian Chronicle, who is charged with the same offence.
The accused persons, who have pleaded not guilty, published in their papers that the government was dealing in cocaine and was using the proceeds to purchase arms and ammunition to destabilise the country if it lost the 1996 general elections.
Quarcoo said the story was taken from the African Observer, a New York-based weekly edited by a Ghanaian.
In his evidence-in-chief, he mentioned the Guide, a weekly newspaper, as one of his sources of information for the publication.
He agreed to a suggestion that his other sources of information, which he mentioned in his evidence-in-chief, were made known to his counsel after he had been charged.
Quarcoo again agreed with the prosecution that those sources of information were not mentioned in the publication, as he did in the case of the African Observer.
Hearing continues on Thursday, July 22.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra), 22nd July 99 -
Mohammed Hajazi, Managing Director of African Automobile Limited (AAL), on Wednesday appeared before a circuit tribunal in Accra, charged with threat of death.
He pleaded not guilty and was granted 10 million cedis bail with one surety to be justified. He will re-appear on August 13.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Patrick Sarpong, told the tribunal that, on June two, this year, workers of the company embarked on a strike action to back their demand for better service conditions.
DSP Sarpong said on June 23, at about 10 a.m. when the workers were at the front of the company premises, the accused entered his office and brought out a shotgun and threatened to shoot the workers for assembling there.
For fear of their lives, they dispersed, but on July two, they reported again at the front of the factory, where they were served with dismissal letters and re-application forms, which they rejected.
Hajazi again pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot them, and the workers reported the matter to the Odorkor Police but the accused travelled outside the country on July 19 and was arrested on his return.
When he was searched, the Police retrieved two pistols, one with eight rounds of live ammunition.
In another development, a high court in Accra has dismissed an application filed by the management of AAL for an order of interlocutory injunction against the Industrial and Commercial Union of the TUC for allegedly instigating workers to cause disturbances and labour unrest in the company.
AAL wanted the court to restrain ICU, which has written to the management to unionise the workers but the company was reluctant to do so.
Giving reasons for dismissing the application, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Richard K. Apaloo, said: "Our constitution makes it abundantly clear that there should be freedom of association and the courts have a duty to protect that freedom".
In the view of the court, the letters from ICU calling for unionisation of the workers were meant to "articulate the right of the workers freedom of association".
" Those letters cannot be remotely interpreted to mean organising workers against AAL. I am unable to rely on those letters to reach that conclusion" the judge declared.
The court said the management of AAL failed to establish any link between the workers and ICU which led to the strike and dismissed the application.
It, however, ordered the striking workers not to "approach the premises of AAL within a distance of 200 yards until the final determination of the substantive case, or until the court revoked the order".
The management of AAL filed a suit seeking an order to prevent the forced closure of the factory by the workers.
GRi…/