Atta Akyea defends bid to expunge disputed prosecution submissions in Adu-Boahene case

Lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea has defended his decision to seek the removal of portions of the prosecution’s written submissions in the criminal case involving former National Signals Bureau boss Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife, Angela Adjei Boateng, insisting that defence counsel have a professional responsibility to challenge arguments they consider unsupported by the evidence.

Although the High Court dismissed his application, Mr Atta Akyea said he was duty-bound to raise concerns over what he described as false representations of evidence rather than remain silent.

He argued that statements not supported by testimony or exhibits on the trial record should not be allowed to stand alongside the established evidence.

“No court is entitled to be the receptacle of falsehood,” he said after the ruling.

Mr Atta Akyea maintained that the court had the authority to remove disputed material where legal submissions introduced claims that were not borne out by the evidence presented during the proceedings.

“Where there is falsification of matters, trying to import issues that are not borne by the record, the court has power to expunge them,” he said.

The lawyer explained that his application was informed by his duty to protect the interests of the accused persons and ensure that the court was made aware of alleged inaccuracies in the prosecution’s arguments.

“It is extremely necessary for our prudence that a lawyer was intellectually awake and saw through matters captured by the Attorney-General that were totally false in his written submissions and brought it to the attention of the court,” he said.

He added that filing the application was part of his effort to uphold the professional standards expected of legal practitioners by drawing the court’s attention to the disputed claims.

“I believe that I wanted to follow our professional standards and I’m glad for it,” he said.