Get Up: Anas Judgment Day Has Arrived (Part 2)

See Them At The Kangaroo Court!

ACCRA:

Ghana, we still have a problem!

THE PALAVER:

After more than 2 years of investigations, Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a Ghanaian journalist, provided evidence of malfeasance by 34 judges and a host of other government officials (police officers, court clerks, etc.). The evidence was first presented to the Chief Justice of Ghana. Weeks later, a video of the investigation was shown at a public venue.

Around 26 September, following a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney General the journalist, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police "commenced investigations into the allegations of corruption against some judicial personnel and police officers...(among them)...Seven police officers..." (Ghanaweb, 29 September)¹.

SITEM:

1. Lawyer John Ndebugri is still the most ignorant, lawless, lawyer in Africa, bar none!

2. Lawyer Bright Akwetey was entirely off his rocker for defending his client by saying Mr. Anas should have hid behind a window screen to observe the judge taking a bribe before reporting the judge for "taking money from somebody". The simple-stupid idea is, if a suspicious private citizen can arrest (and not lynch) another citizen on suspicion of a crime, then the same suspicious citizen has the right to directly entice a judge with anything of value in other to obtain evidence of corruption by the public official for an act they were inclined to commit anyway.

3. A private citizen does not "entrap" a judge who is inclined to commit a crime (i.e. abuse of authority) and violation(s) of professional ethical conduct, and as a result, brings the name of the judiciary, government, and the People into disrepute, shame, and scorn.

DISCUSSION:

In Part I, we said Chief Justice Wood's visit to the US in 2008 is instructive because Ms. Wood indicated desire to advance the Ghana legal system in stature by building on its institutional capacities through reform. In the US, "entrapment" as a defense is only available when the entrapment was committed by either a law enforcement officer (or their agent).

In Part II, we present the current understanding of "entrapment" in the United Kingdome where much of Ghana's legal system originated. In fact, we will hazard that attention-deficit lawyers Mr. John Ndebugri and Mr. Bright Akwetey most likely earned their law degree in the UK or in Ghana, not in the US. Under the British system, this is what constitutes "entrapment".

ENTRAPMENT IN THE UK²:

As understood in UK criminal law, "...for a person to fall foul of entrapment, a law enforcement agent would have induced a person to commit an offence that otherwise they would have had no intention to commit... Entrapment occurs when an agent of the state...causes someone to commit an offence in order that he should be prosecuted....It is established case law that...there is no defence of entrapment in English law...to those who are entrapped by undercover journalists into committing criminal offences (R v Sang [1980] AC 402)..."

REPEAT:

Again, if a person, including a judge or a police officer is induced to commit a crime by a journalist, a crime they were inclined to commit on their own given "opportunity" in the first place, the judge and the police officer (and their lawyers) cannot use the entrapment defense.

CONCLUSION:

In the UK, entrapment "is not a substantive defence in the sense of providing a ground upon which the accused is entitled to an acquittal...(and)...he fact that the accused was entrapped is not inconsistent with his having broken the law. The entrapment will usually have achieved its object in causing him to do the prohibited act with the necessary guilty intent. If a judge is induced to commit a crime by a private citizen, he/she cannot use the entrapment defense...".

Also, a compromised judge cannot use his/her official position to attack anyone, including finding them in contempt of the discredited court for the offense they themselves committed. (We image this is the same case in Ghana, unless the Kangaroo Cedi Court is for real!).

NOTES & SOURCES:

1. CID begins investigations into judicial bribery scandal, General News of Tuesday, 29 September 2015, Ghanaweb.

2. "In Brief - Helping with Life's Legal Issues", at http://www.inbrief.co.uk/police/police-entrapment.htm). See also "Judgments - Regina v Loosely", at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200102/ldjudgmt/jd011025/loose-2.htm. (Or, go read the real law books on the decisions).

3. Visit www.GhanaHero.com. Read Mo'! Listen Mo! Reflect Mo'!

Get a copy of the final paper at www.GhanaHero.com/FOIB.

(Prof Lungu, GhanaHero.Com, 25 September, 2015 - Prof Lungu is not a lawyer).

Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA.

Get Up: Anas Judgment Day Has Arrived (Part 2).