Tsatsu Tsikata Goes To Supreme Court Again

THE incarcerated former boss of the Ghana National Petroleum Company Tsatsu Tsikata, has filed a motion at the Supreme Court seeking a review of the court's decision not to quash Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban's ruling of June 18.

On June 18, Mrs Justice Abban sentenced Mr Tsikata to five years jail term for misappropriation of state funds.

A statement issued by Tony Lithur yesterday on behalf of the Free Tsatsu Tsikata Campaign, said Mr Tsikata filed a total of 21 grounds in support of his application for review of the decision.

The statement said the motion would also seek to review the decision that Mr Tsikata's application for arrest of a pending judgement of the Supreme Court “was incompetent”.

According to the  statement, the claims by the court that the applicant ought to have anticipated the possibility of the judge declining to grant any further adjournment “is without any basis.”

It said the trial judge had since October 27, 2006, avoided a mistrial on a miscarriage of justice by waiting for the outcome of the appeal in respect of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

It said since that decision of the Supreme Court was still pending, “it was wrong for the supreme court to fail to appreciate that the trial judge suddenly taking a different course on June 18, 2008 without prior notice was not fair to him.”

The statement described as false, the court's statement that it did not make any order binding the trial judge from delivering her judgement pending the outcome of appeal on the IFC issue.

The statement noted that Mr Tsikata believed that the supreme court, just like Mrs Justice Abban, “acted in violation of Article 296 of the constitution, which requires that discretion should be exercised in a fair and candid manner and not in an arbitrary and capricious manner.

“He claims that there was a consistent and fundamental failure to consider the case put forward by him,” the statement noted.

Mr Tsikata contended that the multiple cover in the written reasons of the Supreme Court and its failure to apply clearly laid down constitutional principles to factual circumstances that were brought before it, necessitate a review.

Meanwhile, his appeal with regards to Mrs Justice Abban's ruling on July 30, 2008 in which she dismissed his application for bail, will be heard at the Appeals Court next Monday.