Supreme Court upholds presidential pardon granted radio show host and two others saying the power of President in this instance cannot be questioned
The Supreme has by a majority decision ruled that former President, John Dramani, did no wrong in granting a presidential pardon to a radio show host and two others convicted of contempt.
Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase who were part of a political talk show on Accra-based Montie FM were jailed on July 27, 2016 following threats, made live on radio, to kill some judges whose judgements they disagreed with.
One of them, Godwin Ako-Gun, was elected Deputy Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) just last weekend.
Despite a three-month jail sentence handed by the Supreme Court, the NDC supporters were set free by then President, John Dramani Mahama on August 22, 2016, after they had served a little over three weeks in jail.
Delivering the decision of the Panel, Justice Adinyira said the President’s powers to grant pardons covers criminal contempt. She added that this cannot be questioned by the court.
The court ‘s decision was a majority 5-2 decision comprising Justices Adinyira, Baffour Bonnie, Appau, Pwamang, Benin.
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myjoyonline
