The Supreme Court by a majority decision on Wednesday upheld the decision by President John Mahama to grant Presidential pardon to a radio show host of Montie FM and two other panelists in July 2016.
The trio could have ended up in jail to serve the remainder of their term if the Supreme Court had granted the reliefs that was sought by the petitioners.
Alister Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn who’s the newly elected Deputy Communications Officer of the opposition NDC party and Salifu Maase aka Mugabe who were part of the political talk show on Accra based Montie FM were jailed in July 2016 following threats made live on radio to kill some Judges whose judgement they disagreed with.
The again threatened to rape then Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood on the same show.
In spite of a three months jail term handed them by the Supreme Court, then President, John Dramani Mahama set them free on August 22, 2016 after spending three weeks in jail.
One of the plaintiffs, Nana Asante Bediatuo who’s now Secretary to current President Nana Akufo Addo argued that the Presidential pardon granted the three was unconstitutional.
The two other plaintiffs are Elikplim Agbamava, a lawyer who’s also the NDC Flagbearer aspirant and Alfred Yeboah.
But the Supreme Court in its judgement said Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution allows the President the power to grant pardon including pardon bordering on criminal contempt, hence that power in the court’s opinion should not be questioned for which reason it upheld the decision by ex President Mahama.
