Key suspect in gold shipment case dies
The key suspect in the illegal shipment of 1.5 tonnes of gold worth $52 million from Ghana to Turkey, Peter Kofi Bedzra, has died at the 37 Military Hospital.
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His lawyer, Mr Musah Ahmed, who confirmed his death to the Daily Graphic, said he died last Monday night of natural causes.
The death of Bedzra brings his side of the case to an end, according to the country’s criminal law.
Mr Ahmed said he received the news of his client’s death with shock and described Bedzra as a humble and respectful person full of humour.
“I will miss him a lot, not because he was my client but because of his humility and respect for every person,” he added.
He said his client had health problems long before the case started and explained that that was why he had prayed the court for him not to be kept in cells.
On March 22, 2013, an Accra Circuit Court hearing the criminal prosecution of Bedzra and two others granted permission to Bedzra to travel to Nigeria to seek medical attention there.
That was after his lawyer had prayed the court to review its bail conditions and allow his client to travel to Nigeria for medical care.
The court, presided over by Mrs Justice Patience Mills-Tetteh, a High Court judge with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge, had, on February 26, 2013, granted Bedzra bail in the sum of GHc100,000, with three sureties.
He was ordered to surrender his passport to the BNI, as well as report himself to the national investigative body every Friday.
Following his counsel’s plea for a review of the bail conditions, the court gave the accused person permission to retrieve his passport from the BNI.
Bedzra had pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery of document, contrary to Section 158 of the Criminal Code 1960, Act 29.
He was charged together with Joseph Kwame Donkor, who is the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Chairman for Gomoa West, and Frank Mould, alias Ebo, a forwarding agent,
Bedzra, on December 31, 2012, was alleged to have forged certain documents, including a Geological Survey Department certificate for mineral samples numbered OC5/6/12/13; a Bank of Ghana Foreign Exchange form 4A with serial number 14317261 and Goods Movement Certificate No. A296968 to facilitate the export of 1,500 kilogrammes of gold to Dubai.
Mould, for his part, was alleged to have, on December 31, 2012, aided and abetted Bedzra to forge the documents, as well as uttered forged documents to aid Bedzra to evade the requirement under the law by exporting the 1.5 tonnes of gold.
According to the prosecution, Donkor abetted Bedzra to ship the gold to Turkey without undergoing the stipulated legal requirement before the shipment.
Background
The facts of the case are that Mould, who is a forwarding agent, operates at the Kotoka International Airport and in December 2012, Valid Moradi Moghaddam and his partners, all Arabs, arrived in Ghana to purchase gold.
They got in touch with Omanye Gold Mining Limited which sold a quantity of gold weighing 1.5 tonnes and valued at $52 million to them.
According to the prosecution, the buyers packed the gold into 30 boxes for export to Dubai.
The prosecution informed the court that Mould was contracted to process the consignment for export and, in the process, he aided Bedzra to forge documents of the Geological Survey Department, the Bank of Ghana and a goods movement certificate in order to ship the said 30 boxes through Customs and other security checks at the airport and subsequently exported the said consignment to Dubai on December 31, 2012.
It said on December 29, 2012, a chartered cargo plane arrived at the airport to carry the consignment to Dubai.
On arrival at the airport, Donkor booked room reservations for the seven member crew of the cargo plane at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra by using Joedith Ventures Limited, while the crew was handled by Menzies-Aviance Handling Services Company Limited who took the crew to the hotel for lodging.
On December 31, 2012, Donkor and another person whose name was given only as Believer and others saw to it that Mould processed the consignment for export.
The prosecution said while the processing was going on, Donkor kept communicating with Believer and a representative of Menzies on phone until the aircraft took off around 10:30 p.m. with the 30 boxes of gold.
On January 1, 2013, Donkor, according to the prosecution, paid the bill on behalf of the crew that flew out with the gold and during the course of the investigations, it was observed that Bedzra did not have the authority to enable Donkor and his accomplice to export the gold.
The prosecution said the cargo aircraft containing the gold was, however, intercepted and detained in Turkey because documents accompanying the gold appeared not to be genuine.
By Michael Donkor/Daily Graphic/Ghana
