2 BRITONS ACQUITTED BY SUPREME COURT

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 08 February 2007
THE Supreme Court yesterday acquitted and discharged two of the five foreigners and a Ghanaian who were jailed 20 years each by an Accra High Court on October 27, 2004, for importing 588.33 kilogrammes of cocaine into the country.

The two, David J. Logan and Frank D. Lavelrick, both British, had been charged with two counts of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence relating to narcotic drugs and possessing narcotic drugs without authority.

Their colleagues still serving sentences are Kevin Dinsdale Gorman, an American, Mohammed Ibrahim Kamil, also known as ‘K’, a Tema based car dealer, Alan Hodgson, British, and Sven Leornhard Herb, German.

The trial court, presided over by Justice Francis Kusi Appiah, a Court of Appeal judge, in his judgement had said that the prosecution was able to prove that Logan and Lavelrick had travelled with Gorman to Europe and South America, respectively, to purchase the cocaine for shipment to Ghana.

But the five member Supreme Court panel chaired by Justice Sophia Akuffo, in a unanimous decision quashed the decisions of both the trial High Court and the Appeal Court where the two initially lost their appeal.

They filed the appeal at the Supreme Court in December 2005.

The panel, which also included Justices S.A. Brobbey, Julius Ansah, R.T. Aninakwah and Sophia Adinyira, said the conviction of the two by the trial court could not be supported by the evidence adduced at the trial.

The highest court in the land said the lower court erred in holding that a prima facie case had been established in the light of the evidence.

It held that the two should not have been called upon by the trial court to open their defence and when they did, they were able to produce credible evidence to show that they were not among the people who imported the cocaine into the country.

Turning to the Court of Appeal, which in a 2-1 majority upheld the trial court’s decision, the Supreme Court said it erred in affirming that the prosecution was able to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt against the two.

The Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the conviction was delivered on November 4, 2005 and the panel included Justices J.B Akamba as the chairman, with R.K Apaloo and E.K Piesare as members.

After the proceedings, an elated Kwabena Addo Atuah, counsel for the two freed men, said, "This is a major victory for the rule of law and good governance."

At press time counsel and court officials were in the process of signing the necessary documents for the release of the two.