An Accra High Court has acquitted and discharged Daniel Opare Asiedu, a lawyer, who was jailed by an Accra Circuit Court on October 26, 2022, in an adoption case.
The Court, presided over by Justice Mary Ekue Yanzuh, also acquitted Madam Elizabeth Arthur Adjei, aka Maa Lizzy, Proprietress of God Kids Orphanage, who was also jailed by the same court.
A statement copied to the GNA by Abraham Arthur, Counsel for the two, said the High Court discharged them on June 2, 2023.
On August 28, 2018, the appellants, Asiedu and Madam Adjei were put before an Accra Circuit Court on the charge of conspiracy to commit crime to wit defrauding by false pretences.
Asiedu was additionally charged with abetment of crime to wit defrauding by false pretences.
After a full trial, the court sentenced Madam Adjei (the first appellant) to 36 months imprisonment and a fine of GHC6,000 or in default serve 18 months.
The court sentenced Asiedu (the second appellant) to 36 months imprisonment and a fine of GHC12,000.
The two appellants who were dissatisfied with the conviction and sentences, filed an appeal on November 22, 2022.
The High Court after a thorough examination of the appeal records, acquitted and discharged the appellants.
“The High Court found as a fact that the charges levelled against the appellants by the prosecution were completely different from the evidence adduced at the trial, the learned judge at page 27 of her judgement stated.”
“Indeed the evidence led by the prosecution at the trial had nothing to do with the charges preferred against the accused persons,” the statement said.
It said the High Court again found that the trial judge erred when she based her judgement on facts totally unrelated to the charges against the appellants.
According to the statement, the High Court also found out that the charges levelled against the appellants had no basis.
Additionally, the statement said the High Court also held that the prosecution failed to adduce enough evidence to support the conviction and sentence, and that the appellants ought not to have been convicted.
The statement said: “The learned High Court Judge confirmed that the appellants were innocent of the charges against them at the Circuit Court and, therefore, their conviction and sentences were made in error.”
The High Court, therefore, set aside the circuit court’s conviction and sentences of the appellant, the statement added.
A statement issued by the Gender Ministry in November 2022, alleged that the appellants succeeded in collecting money from a couple with the promise of transporting them and their one and half-year-old son to Canada for a job opportunity.
The statement said the complainants were asked to pay GHC5,000 to procure passport and other travel documents, out of which GHC4,000 was paid.
Madam Adjei, the statement alleged, later informed the complainants that, all the documents were ready but one person (the wife) could not travel because she had become pregnant and could only travel after delivery.
The statement said the complainant( the man) could also travel after three days because there was a problem with the passport, which must be worked on but his son could travel because there was nothing wrong with his document and that the “white man” to take them to Canada would go ahead with the boy.
It said after months of persistence, the complainant was given a document suggesting his child had been adopted.
Hence, he reported the case to Devtraco Police Station and the two were arrested and prosecuted by the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police with support from the Human Trafficking Secretariat (HTS) of the Gender Ministry.