Benneh jailed 20 years for dealing in cocaine
Two remanded for
criminal abortion
16 illegal lotto operators remanded
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 June 2000
A Regional Tribunal in Accra by a 2-1 majority on Tuesday sentenced Frank Benneh, a former diplomat in Geneva, Switzerland, to 20 years imprisonment after it found him guilty on five counts of dealing in cocaine while at post.
The tribunal imposed a 20-year jail sentence on each of the counts, which are to run concurrently.
Chairman of the tribunal, Mr Justice George Wright Mensah dissented while Mr Andrews Dartey and Mr S.Y. Kwamuar, both panel members who are laymen, carried the majority verdict.
Mr Ray Kakraba-Quarshie, attorney for Benneh, notified the court of his client's intention to appeal against the conviction and sentence and applied for bail for Benneh.
Counsel invoked a provision in the law, which established the tribunals that where a decision of a regional tribunal exclude that of the chairman, the convicted person on application, be granted bail pending the hearing of the appeal.
The tribunal obliged and granted Benneh 10 million cedis bail or landed property with two sureties to be justified. It ordered that he should report to the Police every Monday and surrender his passport to the Police until the final determination of the matter.
Benneh pleaded not guilty. In his defence he said he was an intelligence officer and was keeping surveillance on two blacks he thought were Ghanaians dealing in narcotic drugs at a Supermarket, a few meters from his residence.
He contended that it was when he was carrying out this duty that the Swiss Police arrested him and the others.
Mr Kwamuar, who read the majority verdict, said the prosecution proved the case against Benneh by tendering statements of witnesses from Geneva that were not objected to by the defence.
The court held that Benneh passed on some cocaine to a witness in the case and even gave his diplomatic passport to that witness.
The two panel members held that the prosecution was able to prove the charges against Benneh and accordingly found him guilty.
Mr Justice Mensah in his view, said the prosecution failed to exhibit the drug allegedly bought or supplied by Benneh when the Swiss Police arrested him.
He said there is evidence that the drug was allegedly destroyed in Geneva by the Swiss authorities. The court was not told how the drug was destroyed and the weight.
The tribunal chairman said there is evidence that an investigation team from Ghana went to Geneva to negotiate with the Swiss authorities for the repatriation of Benneh.
Mr Justice Mensah contended that there is no evidence on record to show that the team went to investigate Benneh.
He said the prosecution also failed to bring down any of its witnesses from the Swiss Police to testify before the court, how, when and why Benneh was arrested.
The prosecution failed to prove the charges against Benneh who must be acquitted and discharged, Mr Justice Mensah said.
The case for the prosecution was that in January 1996, the Swiss Police arrested Benneh with two other blacks for allegedly dealing in cocaine.
The Swiss authorities reported the matter to the Ghana Embassy in Switzerland and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Accra.
The Ghana Government sent an investigation team to Geneva where it negotiated for the repatriation and trial of Benneh in Ghana because the accused had diplomatic immunity.
GRi../
Two remanded for
criminal abortion
Cape Coast (Centra Region) 27 June
2000
Kwesi Awortwi, unemployed, who
allegedly gave unspecified drugs to his girlfriend to abort a four-month-old
pregnancy, was on Monday remanded in prison custody by a Cape Coast Circuit
Court.
Awortwi, 27, pleaded not guilty to
conspiracy to commit crime and committing criminal abortion and will reappear
on July 5.
With him in the dock was his
girlfriend, Afua Atamah, alias (Maame Sofo), 22, also unemployed, who pleaded
not guilty to the same charge.
Told court heard that Afua, who
lives at Elmina, befriended Awortwi sometime in January, this year. On May 3,
Afua's sister, Madam Adwoa Mabah returned from town to find her in pain and
bleeding.
Upon persistent questioning, Afua
admitted that she was pregnant and that Awortwi had given her some drugs to
abort it.
Adwoa took her sister to the
hospital where she was admitted for three weeks.
When Adwoa confronted Awortwi, he
denied knowledge of the pregnancy and any attempt to abort it. She, therefore,
reported the matter to the police.
GRi../
16 illegal lotto operators remanded
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 June 2000
An Accra Circuit Tribunal on Monday remanded 16 people for allegedly pirating on winning numbers drawn by the Department of National Lotteries (DNL).
The accused persons, who are lotto writers and agents from Asare Original Pay All, Rambel, Super 06 and Magic Power lotteries, pleaded not guilty to the charge of operating illegal lottery known as "banker to banker".
The tribunal chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yebuah heard that the Lotto Receivers Union of the DNL had warned private lotto operators to stop pirating on numbers of the DNL.
On June 24, the police, together with some staff from the DNL, mounted an exercise to clamp down on the activities of private lotto operators as a result of which the accused persons were arrested. The case has been adjourned to July 3.
GRi../