CONVICTED EDITOR-In-Chief, Raymond Archer, has apologized to former Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei Adje, for publishing several offensive materials about him.
Mr. Archer, publisher of the Enquirer newspaper, would this morning appear before an Accra High Court for sentencing after the court convicted him for contempt last Wednesday.
He risks being either thrown in jail or asked to pay a handsome amount of money as fine.
Court sources told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that Mr. Archer had sent a written apology to the former Minister and expressed his regret for the said publications.
Excerpts from the letter, which was signed by Mr. Archer, read: “It was not my intention to undermine the authority of the court or to pre judge the matter before the court.
I retract the said publications and say that I am truly sorry for the infractions.”
The letter of apology from Mr. Archer is part of what the court ordered him to do. He is also reported to have written a similar letter to the court and promised that in the next edition of the Enquirer, he would retract the said publications against Osei Adjei.
The Atta Mills-led government has dragged Osei Adjei to court over a diplomatic role he played in getting the government of Ghana to import some 300,000 bags of rice from India. Charles Daniel Gyimah, former boss of the National Investment Bank, has also been charged in the case.
In the course of the trial, the Enquirer published some articles under the headlines, 'Ricemasters Trial Bombshell' and 'Dan Gyimah and Osei Adjei boxed in as secret move to pay off witnesses is busted'.
The publications suggested that the former minister was making a desperate and secret attempt to pay off witnesses in the case so they do not turn up to testify against him.
Osei Adjei subsequently dragged Mr. Archer and his newspaper to court over the story, and after hearing the submissions of both parties, the presiding Judge, Justice Bright Mensah, found the journalist guilty of contempt of court.
He however deferred sentencing to today, Friday, February 26, 2010, and asked that Mr. Archer should first publish a retraction and an apology for the story.
By Halifax Ansah-Addo
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