Gbagbo ally refused court bail again in Ghana
The Osu District Magistrate Court in Accra for the second time turned down a bail application put in by Justin Kone Katinan, a key ally of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, on Thursday.
The court presided by Mr Aboagye Tandoh in its ruling noted that Katinan’s four weeks incarceration did not constitute an unreasonable delay.
According to the court it also did not see that prosecution had violated its previous order to both defense and prosecution, requiring the State to expedite action on the extradition procedures by acquiring the needed documentation.
It added that it found the prosecution’s submissions compelling and adjourned the matter to September 25.
At Thursday’s sitting, Mrs Yvonne Atakorah Obuobisa, Principal State Attorney informed the court that Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had received some documents from Cote d’Ivoire yesterday and was translating those documents from French to English.
For that reason, prosecution said it was unable to start with the extradition process in court today and sought for adjournment.
Mr Patrick Sorgbodzor, counsel for Katinan renewed his application for bail, saying to due to the development it did not seem that prosecution was not going to commence with the extradition process anytime soon.
Mr Sorgbodzor expressed worry over the four-week incarceration suffered by his client and prayed the court to admit him to bail.
Katinan looked worried following the court’s order while relations who thronged the court also looked dejected.
On Wednesday, September 5, a Human Rights Court terminated a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Katinan.
The writ was filed by the ex-Ivorian Cabinet Minister’s counsel, Mr Patrick Sorgbodjor, asking the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to produce him in court to justify his detention.
The BNI therefore produced Katinan in court on August 31, this year.
The court presided over by Mr Kofi Essel Mensah after listening to arguments from the state and defence counsel ruled that it would not like to prejudge, pre-empt and truncate the action as the state had given good reasons for the arrest and detention of Katinan.
Government in a brief information indicated that President John Mahama was seeking advice from the Attorney General on a request for his extradition to face prosecution for war crimes committed during Ivory Coast’s recent post-election violence.
Source: GNA