The High Court in Accra will on April 18, 2023, determine the admissibility or otherwise of the charged and cautioned statements obtained from Daniel Asiedu, the man who has been accused of killing late Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North, Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu.
The substantive trial before Her Ladyship Justice Lydia Osei Marfo of the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court has been put on hold for a mini-trial following an objection raised by the defense.
Asiedu alias Sexy Don Don through his lawyers led by Lawyer Yaw Danquah has alleged he did not give the charged and cautioned statements which the prosecution sought to rely on in the trial voluntarily.
Per the law, the court is obliged to conduct a mini-trial to ascertain the veracity of the allegations raised before the substantive trial proceed.
It was the case of Sexy Don Don that the investigators subjected him to various degrees of threat, coercion, intimation and violently abused him into accepting whatever was thrown at him.
He also accused the investigators of forcefully holding his hands to sign those statements and also pushing him into thumb-printing them.
He, therefore, urged the court not to admit those statements which were going to be tendered into evidence by Chief Inspector Augustine Nkrumah.
Prosecution’s argument
But, his allegations were strongly disputed by the Prosecution led by Mrs Sefakor Batse, a Principal State Attorney who called the investigators and independent witnesses who were present when those statements were taken to court to testify.
It was the case of the prosecution during the mini-trial that the accused person voluntarily gave his statements to the police in the presence of an independent witness who in turn explained to him in the language he understood.
The prosecution pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimonies of the accused person during the cross examination.
Vincent Bossu, the second accused, who has been charged together with Asiedu for abetment also gave a similar account and was subjected to cross-examination.
Following the conclusion of the mini-trial, Justice Osei Marfo has fixed April 18 to deliver her ruling after which the substantive trial would resume.
Sexy Don Don is also separately facing the charge of robbery.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Murtala Inusah
