Plumber freed after five years wrongful imprisonment 

A plumber who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for allegedly robbing the head of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), Commissioner of Police (COP) MaameYaaTiwaa Addo-Danquah at her home in 2016 has been freed by the criminal division of the Accra High Court.

On October 17, 2017, the Accra Circuit Court One(1) found Emmanuel Darko, a trader named Kwame Konadu, and Abdulai Rashid guilty of conspiracy to rob and five counts of robbery. All three were sentenced to 24 years of hard labor for each count, to be served at the same time.

Since his conviction in 2017, he has served five of the 24 years he was sentenced to.

But on November 7, 2018, Justice Elfreda Ama Dankyi, who was in charge of the Criminal Division of the court, agreed with Darko's lawyer, Jeffery Abbey Adamson of the Legal Aid Commission.

Mr. Adamson said that the lower court's decision against the appellant did not meet the standard for criminal trials because the prosecution did not prove the charges against him beyond a reasonable doubt.

"In my opinion, the evidence presented by the prosecution to prove the charges against the appellant did not meet the required standard of proof, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

"There was a mistake of justice because the trial judge did not consider the appellant's defense. Justice Dankyi said as she overturned the lower court's decision against Darko, "I therefore throw out the conviction and sentence of the appellant on the five counts of conspiracy to rob and robbery."

She also decided that, during the trial at Circuit Court 4, prosecution witnesses who lived at the house, like the first prosecution witness, COP Addo-Danquah, admitted that they had never seen Darko there and never questioned his claim of innocence.

According to the court documents, on November 1, 2016, the complainant, who was then Assistant COP and is now the boss of EOCO, Madam YaaTiwaa Addo Danquah, told the police that her home had been broken into.

This led to the arrest of Kwame Konadu, a trader from Medie, Abdulai Rashid, also known as Gameboy, a driver, and Emmanuel Darko, a plumber from Madina.

Benjamin Aidoo, also known as Ice Tee, and Kwame Tawiah, both traders, were also there.

The document showed that the complainant and her family were sleeping on the said date at about 3:30 am when Konadu, Rashid, and Darko climbed over the fence and entered the complainant's property.

It said that they broke open the sliding door on the ground floor, went inside, and attacked three young men from the complainant's family who were sleeping in their room.

They also beat them badly, tied them up, and locked them in their bathroom and bedroom.

They then went through the room and stole a Sony PlayStation 4, two iPhone 6, a Toshiba Google Chrome laptop, a Samsung Galaxy S5, a Compaq laptop, and GH 120 in cash.

"They went upstairs and attacked Mrs. Addo-Danquah and her husband, taking their Acer computer, jewelry, necklace, tablet, iPhones, Samsung phone, police Gota phone, and GH 7,400 in cash. "They also took her wedding band, which was worth €200," the court file said.

The thieves took the laptops and phones to Kofi Kwei in Pokuase and sold them to Aidoo. Later, the police got the items back from Aidoo.

Aidoo said that Konadu and Rashid had sold him the items, which led to their arrest.

He said that Rashid led the police to Kaneshie, where they sold the complainant's gold wedding ring to the goldsmith Tawiah for GH580 and arrested Rashid.

The police couldn't find the complainant's ring because Tawiah said in his caution statement that he had melted it down to make another one for a customer.

Justice Dankyi also found that the trial judge grouped all three of the accused together instead of looking at what role each one played in committing the crimes. As a result, the judge drew the wrong conclusions from the evidence about how guilty each person was of the charges.

Lawyer Jeffery Adamson went to the High Court to challenge the Circuit Court's decision. He did this for four main reasons. The first was that the trial judge made a mistake in the law when he decided that the appellant was involved in the alleged conspiracy and robbery. He also made a mistake in the law by not dropping the case against the appellant after the prosecution's case was over.

The other reasons were that the appellant's defense wasn't taken into account enough and that the judge's decision couldn't be supported by the evidence, which was a big mistake for the appellant.

Source: Ghanaian Times