COMPACT DISC CAUSES STIR AT COKE TRIAL

THE Compact Disc (CD) containing the recorded conversation which took place in the house of ACP Kofi Boakye on the missing 77 parcels of cocaine caused another stir at the Fast Track High Court today when a voice expert flown in from London told the court that the CD he worked on was different from the one in evidence.
The controversy, which was later resolved with the playing of the CD, unfolded when the expert, Professor John Peter French, was given a CD to identify whether it was the one he was given to work on.
Prof French was testifying as the 9th prosecution witness in the case in which Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass are being tried for their role in the missing cocaine.
Tagor is facing four counts of conspiracy, engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs, buying of narcotic drugs and supplying narcotic drugs, while Alhaji Issah Abass faces two counts of conspiracy and supply of narcotic drugs.
They have pleaded not guilty to all the counts and have been refused bail by the court.
Kwabena Acheampong, Tagor, Alhaji Abass, Victor Kisseh, alias Yaw Billah, and Alhaji Moro Mohammed were earlier arraigned at the circuit court for allegedly dealing in narcotic drugs but the prosecution, on Wednesday, November 22, 2006, entered a nolle prosequi, resulting in their discharge.
However, fresh charges were preferred against Tagor and Abbas, leading to their appearance at the Fast Track High Court.
After examining the CD, Prof French said the CD he worked on was different from the one in evidence but had similar markings and stated that he had a photograph of the original CD on a laptop computer .
He explained that he could identify the CD he worked on by either examining it or through its content.
“The CD I worked on has the marking K’B written with a green pen and it is 700 MB with the marking bigger while the other CD is 650 MB with marking in green pen”, he said.
Following that Mr Edward Agyemang Duodu, a principal state attorney, who led the witness wanted to have the CD played to the witness to enable him to identify it but counsel for Tagor, Mr Ellis Owusu-Fordjour objected and argued that the witness made it clear that the two CDs were different.
However, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Jones Dotse, an Appeal Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, overruled the objection and said there was no doubt that the CD was not what the witness worked on and that he would authenticate by listening to its content.
“One of the two methods mentioned by the witness had proved that the CD he examined is not the one he worked on and in order to be fair to all let us try the second method by playing the CD”, the judge ruled.
At that stage the court suspended sitting for about 35 minutes for technicians to sort out the CD which could not be played in a machine at the court. It was later played on the laptop of the witness for a duration of one hour and two minutes during which the witness, who had testified in court for over 200 times in many countries, peered at his own timer and checked with a transcripted version on his laps.
After the CD had been played the witness confirmed it was the CD he was given to work on.
Similarly, Prof French identified two of the secret voice recordings to the accused persons after he identified all five CDs containing the secret voice recording of those who participated in the conversation in ACP Boakye’s house.
In a background to how he came to be associated with the CD, the witness said on September 5, last year he met the Attorney-General in London and was given instructions to assist in identifying the voices of some people suspected to have engaged in cocaine business in a conversation.
He said that the names of the participants were mentioned to him and as his term of reference he was to find out whether the conversation was edited or not and also identify the speakers and compare their voices, among other things.
The witness said after receiving the CD of the conversation and an accompanying transcript he needed a local linguist to assist him since the conversation was basically in Twi and English.
Therefore, he said, he searched on the internet and contacted various universities but the Attorney-General made Dr Kofi Agyekum of the University of Ghana available and since peopel could vary their natural voices, he requested that a secret recording of those who participated in the conversation should be made.
Prof French said he had done similar work for the UN Court for War Crimes in the Hague when the former Yugoslavia President, the late Slobadan Milosovic was on trial and when the Prince Harry Exam case in the United Kingdom came up.