Yemenis on trial in Ghana for fake visas to file Submission of No Case – Defence
Prosecution in the case of the four Yemenis alleged to have travelled to Ghana with fake Emergency Entry Visas and French passports has called its second witness.
However Mr Dominic Owusu Sekyere, counsel for the four, told the court that they intended to file a submission of no case after Detective Chief Inspector Abaalug-Ba Baba had testified.
The suspects are Esmail Yahya Zeyad aka Evra Allerson, Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer, aka Ciro Carlos, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard, all students and Eissa Yahya Amer a businessman.
They have been charged with possession of forged documents, fake Emergency Entry Visas, and forgery of official documents.
The four, who spoke through an Arabic interpreter, pleaded not guilty and are in lawful custody.
Chief Inspector Baba admitted knowing the accused persons and the case investigator who he had worked with at the BNI since 2009.
According to the second prosecution witness, he got to know the accused persons when they were arrested by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and brought to the BNI for further investigations.
Chief Inspector Baba said the accused persons allegedly entered the country with forged passports. When asked of the whereabouts of the case investigator Chief Inspector Paul Mahama, a witness, said he got ill at the last sitting and was rushed to the Hospital.
According to the witness, the case investigator was discharged last Friday but he has been given two weeks’ excuse duty.
Witness on behalf of the case investigator tendered in the accused persons’ caution statements and response report from the French Embassy in Ghana on the accused persons’ passports.
Answering questions under cross examination, Chief Inspector Baba said he was not aware that the French Embassy’s report on the accused persons had something to do with their (accused persons) security status.
Witness said he could not explain why the GIS referred the accused persons to the BNI for further investigations.
DSP Aidan Dery, the prosecutor, who earlier read the facts, said all the accused persons were Yemeni Nationals who arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on board Ethiopian Airline Flight ET 920, on November 24 last year.
He said while undergoing immigration arrival procedures, Esmail, Gaafar and Waleed were found with French passports with different names.
The Prosecution said further search on them revealed that all the accused persons had Yemeni passports too, and when the French passports with different names were examined, they were found to be fake.
According to the prosecution, when the accused persons were quizzed they claimed one Abdulai Mohammed, an individual based in Yemen, secured the French passports for them.
He said they claimed the same person gave them a phone number to call a certain Mohammed on arrival in Ghana.
The prosecution said the accused persons were on transit in Ghana to France, then to Istanbul, Turkey.
The prosecution said another examination of their Yemeni passports indicated that Esmail and Gaafar had travelled several times to Djibouti before their trip to Ghana.
Hearing continues on March 9.
Source: GNA