Her Ladyship Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe has admitted the audio recording of a conversation between the learned Attorney-General and the 3rd accused in the Ato Forson trial. Her ladyship in a terse ruling read in open court admitting the recording and rejecting argumentation by the State against the admission.

Her Ladyship in her ruling recounted the history of the case especially events and applications after the 3rd accused made revelations of meetings between himself and the Attorney-General during the cross-examination.

Her ladyship recounted the grounds for the opposition by the State against the admission of the audio recording as eloquently argued by the learned Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) on Tuesday, the 11th day of June, 2024. The grounds were that there was insufficient foundation for the admission of the recording into evidence, the said recording is irrelevant and that the said recording breaches privacy rights of the learned Attorney-General.

The ruling of Her Ladyship also captured the rebuttals offered by the learned Dr. Bassit Bamba to the arguments of the DPP. The ruling captured the arguments of the learned defense Counsel that the said audio recording was relevant to the establishment of Letters of credit among others.

Law on Admissibility of evidence

Her Ladyship also gave an exposition on the law regarding admissibility of evidence per the Evidence Act and highlighted the application of the famous Cubagee v Asare and Others case (Cubagee case) on breaches to privacy rights. The Court said that the present case is a reverse scenario in the Cubagee case and same has applicability to the present case.

Admission

Justice Asare-Botwe per her ruling admitted the audio recording subject to weight to be place on same by the Court. Her ladyship held that the conversation has not been denied by the A-G and that there was the need for reciprocity as the A-G would have had its evidence admitted if same was procured by breaches to privacy rights.

Her Ladyship in her ruling drummed on the provisions of the Electronic Transactions Act 2008, Act 772 and the permission it allows for the admission of electronic evidence subject to some exceptions.

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On weight of the evidence, Her Ladyship said, per her ruling that the audio recording which was already part of the record may be relevant in support of the case of the accused persons and the motive for the trial against the accused persons.

Caution

Her Ladyship took the opportunity to caution against ambush litigation and waste of time of the court