Court frees mechanic wrongly jailed with Ataa Ayi after 23years in prison

Yaw Asante Agyekum, a mechanic who spent 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, has finally regained his freedom after the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction.

The ruling, delivered on Thursday, June 5, 2025, marks the end of a decades-long fight for justice in one of Ghana’s most infamous criminal cases.

Agyekum was convicted in 2002 alongside Ataa Ayi, a notorious armed robber whose name became synonymous with violent crime in the early 2000s. At the time, Ataa Ayi was handed multiple sentences totaling 90 years for a series of armed robbery incidents that terrorised residents in Accra and surrounding areas. Agyekum, who maintained his innocence from the beginning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being linked to one of the robberies attributed to Ataa Ayi’s gang.

However, in a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal ruled that Agyekum’s conviction was unsupported by the evidence presented at trial. The panel, led by Justice Janapare A. Bartels-Kodwo and supported by Justices Aboagye Tandoh and Stephen Oppong, found that the prosecution failed to prove any credible link between Agyekum and the series of robberies committed by Ataa Ayi.

“It was the court's view that the evidence led by the prosecution did not meet the threshold required to convict the appellant,” the panel ruled.

Agyekum’s release comes after an eight-year legal struggle by his lawyer, George Bernard Shaw, who persistently filed appeals and pushed for a review of the case. Shaw argued throughout the process that his client had been a victim of mistaken identity and flawed police investigations.

The ruling brought an emotional end to a harrowing chapter in Agyekum’s life. Emerging from the courtroom visibly relieved and emotional, Agyekum expressed his gratitude for finally being vindicated, having served nearly two-thirds of a 35-year sentence.

His co-accused, Ataa Ayi, remains in prison serving sentences of 70 and 20 years respectively, following convictions in multiple unrelated robbery cases.

Agyekum’s exoneration is now likely to reignite public debate around wrongful convictions, the quality of criminal investigations, and the need for reforms in Ghana’s justice system to prevent similar miscarriages of justice.