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 Mr Asante (right) with human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, after the hearing.
Mr Asante (right) with human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, after the hearing.

Supreme Court scolds A-G Dept over DNA results

The Supreme Court has scolded the Attorney-General’s (A-G) Department for its failure to follow up on a case in which it ordered a DNA test to prove whether or not a man who has served 10 years in prison for defiling and impregnating a 14- year-old girl, is the biological father of the child.

The five-member panel was dissatisfied with the fact that there was no representative of the A-G when the test was conducted.

“We ordered a DNA test but there is no evidence it was the child who was tested. So you did not do anything to follow up? So the man served 10 years in jail for nothing?” a visibly unhappy Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, a member of the five-member panel asked.

The court’s displeasure stemmed from the admission on the part of a Principal State Attorney, Mr Asiamah Sampong, that the department had no knowledge of the test until the result was submitted.

This was after the evidence-in-chief of DSP Edward K. Abban, a DNA Analyst of the DNA Section of the Police Forensic Laboratory, that the DNA analysis conducted by the laboratory  proved that the ex-convict, Eric Asante, was not the father of the child. 

Led in evidence by a human rights lawyer, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, DSP Abban told the court that on July 7, 2015, Asante in the company of the Supreme Court’s Registrar came to the laboratory to request a DNA analysis.

He said the court’s order was reviewed and samples of Asante and the child in question were taken.

However, he said a report generated indicated that “Eric Asante is excluded as the biological father of the child, Gideon.”

When the A-G took its turn, Mr Sampong said the department had no objection to the result of the DNA test.

When a member of the panel, Justice Jones Dotse asked the witness who were the people that accompanied the child to the laboratory, DSP Abban said it was the registrar of the court.

Not satisfied with the response, Justice Dotse said there was a dispute about the child and the ideal thing was that he should have been accompanied by a parent or guardian.

But DSP Sampong said he could not recall the others who came to the laboratory but the section had documentation on all the witnesses.

The court, presided over by Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, therefore, ordered that the documents be made available to it before the adjourned date —November 24, 2016.

Asante in court

During the hearing, Asante who is currently unemployed, sat through the proceedings looking tensed, and occasionally clasped his palm or held his face in his palm and even smiled at some of the banter between the Bench and the witness.

Background

Asante was on September 5, 2005 sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour by the Tamale High Court, after being found guilty of defiling one Rubamatu Mohammed which led to the birth of the child.

 Appeal

Not satisfied, Mr Asante, who had consistently denied having an affair with Rubamatu, appealed against his conviction and the Court of Appeal on October 6, 2006 dismissed the appeal.

While serving his sentence, Mr Asante in 2012 went to the Supreme Court and the court granted him leave to file a notice of appeal against his conviction.

The notice of appeal was followed by an application for an order for the conduct of a DNA test on the child.

The Supreme Court accepted the application and accordingly ordered Rubamatu to make her child available for the DNA test initially to be done at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The court order was served and received on Rubamatu's behalf by her aunts, Juliet Tinjina and Gladys Abokokpa, who were then taking care of Rubamatu's child in Tamale.

Although the court gave eight weeks within which the test should be conducted, the family refused to bring the child to Accra as ordered by the court not even with the intervention of the Northern Regional Police Commander.

Order

Following the intransigence of the child’s family, the Supreme Court on February 11, 2015 further ordered Juliet Tinjina and Gladys Abokokpa to make the child, who was under their care, available for the DNA test, this time at the Police Forensic Unit.

Fight for justice

Although Mr Asante has served his prison term, he insists that his conviction and sentence was without basis because the facts and evidence presented in court when he was arrested did not warrant a conviction.

He explained that although the relatives of Rubamatu claimed that her pregnancy was a result of a sexual intercourse between him and the girl, he did not have any such relationship with her.

 

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