Ataa Ayi
Ataa Ayi Goes To Appeal Court(6/10/2005)
Story: Stephen Sah
Aryee Aryetey, alias Ataa Ayi, who is standing trial at the Accra Fast Track High Court for his alleged involvement in various robberies, has gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the trial court’s decision not to strike out certain names ascribed to him by the prosecution.He has also filed an application for an order of stay of proceedings at the Fast Track High Court pending the determination of his appeal.Mr Joseph Akyeampong, counsel for the appellant in the case in which the accuse is standing trial with eight others for robbing a woman of $65,000, ¢45 million and other valuables at Taifa in Accra in 2003, filed both suits yesterday on behalf of his client. The cases will be heard on June 21, 2005.Three of the suspects are already standing trial with the appellant in connection with a robbery at Dzorwulu in which they allegedly robbed a man of ¢70 million.They are Kwabla Agbodogah, alias Rojay, Samuel Kweku Annan, alias Sammy Tugah, and Raymond Ameh, while the five others are Nana Yaw Owusu, alias Tonny, Yaw Asante Agyakum, alias Akpor, Stephen Nyarko, Frederick Lamptey Annan, alias Numue, and Nana Osei Razak.All the nine suspects have pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and robbery and are on remand.On June 6, 2005, Mr Akyeampong raised a preliminary objection to the prosecution calling the appellant by the aliases, which included “One Touch”, and prayed the court to strike them out because the appellant had never been known by those names. But the court overruled the objection and said the police, after their investigations into the matter, used those names to refer to the appellant who had responded to them anytime he had been called by them.In the notice of appeal, the appellant stated that he was dissatisfied with the Fast Track High Court ruling because the judge failed to give consideration to the fact that those names which had been stated in the charge sheet had never been borne by him, either in the present or the past.According to the appellant, the judge failed or refused to take account of the fact that in a criminal trial, the onus was on the prosecution to describe properly and identify an accused by stating whatever names it decided to use to describe him.In his application for stay of proceedings, the applicant averred that he could not be made by the prosecution and the Fast Track High Court to assume a name or names which he did not bear and hoped that the Court of Appeal would stay proceedings in the matter until the determination of his appeal.He said the outright refusal of his application without any compelling reason to do so was highly prejudicial to him and an infringement of his fundamental human right to be heard and the right to a name of choice.
Ataa Ayi Goes To Appeal Court(6/10/2005)
Story: Stephen Sah
Aryee Aryetey, alias Ataa Ayi, who is standing trial at the Accra Fast Track High Court for his alleged involvement in various robberies, has gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the trial court’s decision not to strike out certain names ascribed to him by the prosecution.He has also filed an application for an order of stay of proceedings at the Fast Track High Court pending the determination of his appeal.Mr Joseph Akyeampong, counsel for the appellant in the case in which the accuse is standing trial with eight others for robbing a woman of $65,000, ¢45 million and other valuables at Taifa in Accra in 2003, filed both suits yesterday on behalf of his client. The cases will be heard on June 21, 2005.Three of the suspects are already standing trial with the appellant in connection with a robbery at Dzorwulu in which they allegedly robbed a man of ¢70 million.They are Kwabla Agbodogah, alias Rojay, Samuel Kweku Annan, alias Sammy Tugah, and Raymond Ameh, while the five others are Nana Yaw Owusu, alias Tonny, Yaw Asante Agyakum, alias Akpor, Stephen Nyarko, Frederick Lamptey Annan, alias Numue, and Nana Osei Razak.All the nine suspects have pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy and robbery and are on remand.On June 6, 2005, Mr Akyeampong raised a preliminary objection to the prosecution calling the appellant by the aliases, which included “One Touch”, and prayed the court to strike them out because the appellant had never been known by those names. But the court overruled the objection and said the police, after their investigations into the matter, used those names to refer to the appellant who had responded to them anytime he had been called by them.In the notice of appeal, the appellant stated that he was dissatisfied with the Fast Track High Court ruling because the judge failed to give consideration to the fact that those names which had been stated in the charge sheet had never been borne by him, either in the present or the past.According to the appellant, the judge failed or refused to take account of the fact that in a criminal trial, the onus was on the prosecution to describe properly and identify an accused by stating whatever names it decided to use to describe him.In his application for stay of proceedings, the applicant averred that he could not be made by the prosecution and the Fast Track High Court to assume a name or names which he did not bear and hoped that the Court of Appeal would stay proceedings in the matter until the determination of his appeal.He said the outright refusal of his application without any compelling reason to do so was highly prejudicial to him and an infringement of his fundamental human right to be heard and the right to a name of choice.
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