Legal vacation: I will not violate the traditions of this practice because of CJ’s pleasure – Atta Akyea

Samuel Atta Akyea, lead counsel for former National Signals Bureau Director, Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife Angela Adjei Boateng has said he will not violate the legal vacation practice due to what he termed as the “pleasure of the Chief Justice.”

Atta Akyea on Tuesday, August 11 was not in court despite the Chief Justice’s directive for the court to proceed with the trial of Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife during legal vacation.

His justification is that courts are on legal vacation and he will uphold the long-standing legal tradition by not attending proceedings during the legal break.

Speaking on TV3’s Daily Brief, Tuesday, August 11, he criticised the decision to proceed with the case while lawyers are on legal vacation.

“I am not going to court on August 17 at all. I will not violate the traditions of the practice because of the pleasure of the CJ. I am telling you this, it is very important,” he stated.

The case has been adjourned to August 17 for the accused persons to produce their lawyers or else the court would discharge the witness and progression of the case.

Justice Achibonga also gave an order for him to show up in court on August 17 or risk having his client conduct the cross-examination of the prosecution’s witness.

But Atta Akyea says it would be unreasonable for a judge to ask an accused person to proceed to cross-examine a prosecution witness in a technically complex case simply because his lawyer is unavailable.

“Why should Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife Angela Adjei Boateng have been charged with multiple offences including stealing, causing financial loss to the state and money laundering.a Judge in a very technical case of this nature that a man’s lawyer is on vacation and the Judge is saying that if your lawyer doesn’t come, go and find another lawyer, but he is saying that you come and stand and cross-examine?” he asked.

Mr Akyea argued that a layperson without legal training cannot be expected to effectively cross-examine witnesses in a complex criminal trial.

“How can a lay person cross-examine in such matter? You are asking a carpenter to go and do a surgery,” he said.

He called for a review of the legal provisions governing the legal vacation, saying that if the established practice is no longer respected, the relevant provision should be removed.

“Then, we should delete Order 79 of C.I. 47 so we don’t have legal vacation,” he added.

Source:Fiilafmonline/3News