THE ATTORNEY General�s Department yesterday failed to appear in court to begin hearing at the trial of Christian Asem Dake alias Limping Man, the alleged brain behind the importation of 77 cocaine parcels in the MV Benjamin Vessel.
This is contrary to the assurance it gave Audrey-Kocuvie-Tay, the circuit court judge hearing the matter, that it would be ready to start the trial yesterday.
According to DSP A. Annor, the prosecutor who earlier handled the case, the docket had been given to Yvonne Obuobisa, a principal state attorney and she was attending a seminar.
The trial judge did not sound happy with the delay on the part of the state in prosecuting the case and appealed to the A-G�s Department to try and put its witnesses together for the trial to begin so that the human rights of the accused would be respected.
Counsel for the accused person, George Heward-Mills, told the court that the state was ambushing his client, adding that the action of the state was a clear violation of the suspect�s fundamental human rights.
According to him, his client was innocent until proven guilty and urged the court to order the A-G to send a state attorney to appear in court for the trial to start.
Counsel for Asem Dake told the judge to use her discretion, as her hands were not tied.
The case has been adjourned to April 18, 2012.
At the last hearing, Kwabena Owusu Ameyaw, a state attorney, informed the judge that they were not in a position to start the case due to its complexity which needed further investigations.
In view of that, he said, the court should adjourn the case for two weeks, saying that by that time, investigations would have been completed.
Counsel for the accused person, Mr Heward-Mills, in his submission, said the continuous postponement of the case was becoming too much, explaining that for the past weeks, the A-G�s Department had been giving excuses to get more time for thorough investigations.
The counsel for the accused person added that from the look of things, there was an indication that prosecution was not ready to finish with the investigation, an action he said was going to affect his client.
Counsel therefore re-applied for bail for his client on grounds that the accused person had nowhere to go and would be available for trial.
The trial judge denied the bail and adjourned the case to April 4.
Limping man denied any wrongdoing when he was charged with conspiracy to commit crime, possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority and importing narcotic drugs without licence.
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