Amoateng freed
A former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North, Mr Eric Amoateng, was on Tuesday acquitted and discharged by the Accra Circuit Court in a case in which he was standing trial on a charge of possessing a forged document.
Advertisement
The court, presided over by Ms Justice Ellen Vivian Amoah, a High Court judge, held that the prosecution failed to establish a case against the former legislator.
Mr Amoateng was accused of travelling from the USA to Ghana on a passport belonging to a female after serving his 10-year sentence for possessing heroin.
The case, the court said, was primarily about whether the accused had direct or implied knowledge that the passport was forged, but the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“All the prosecution witnesses, after looking at the passport, could not determine that it was fake. The accused is, therefore, acquitted and discharged,’’ it said.
“I am free’’
Clad in a brown suit and beaming with smiles, the former lawmaker shouted to the hearing of everybody as he stepped out of the dock after the judgement had been read that: “I am free!’’
Like a newly crowned king, the freed man was greeted with cheers and smeared with white powder by some of his supporters as he stepped out of the courtroom.
Reaction
Reacting to the verdict, counsel for the former legislator, Mr Charles Pouzing, described the verdict as the right voice of the law.
“The law has spoken; the court took time to evaluate all the evidence before it and concluded that Mr Amoateng is not guilty.
“He had always been worried about the fact that he did not intend to come to Ghana after serving his sentence to face another criminal prosecution. Ultimately, we have been vindicated,’’ he said.
Background
According to the prosecution, Amoateng was, on December 11, 2005, arrested in the USA for possessing heroin valued at $6 million.
It said he was tried, convicted and subsequently sentenced to a 10-year prison term and released on July 30, 2014.
About 2.20 p.m. on August 7, 2014, Amoateng arrived at the Kotoka International Airport and while going through arrival formalities, he was found to be in possession of a Ghanaian passport with the number H02347080.
The passport, the prosecution said, was in the name of Barbara Inkum and was issued on February 23, 2009, a time when Amoateng was in prison in the USA.
It said an analysis of the passport by the Document Fraud Office of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) showed that the passport was a forged one, since its biodata page had been substituted.
