In response to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng’s recent criticism of the judiciary’s attitude toward his office, former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo expressed concerns that such allegations don’t positively reflect on the judiciary’s image.
Mr Agyebeng, during a press conference on November 29, accused the judiciary of hastily dismissing his office’s cases, describing the trend as troubling and detrimental to the fight against corruption.
Mr Domelevo emphasized that the use of technicalities in court to frustrate anti-graft cases raises questions about the judiciary’s reputation.
“In my considered opinion, it doesn’t reflect positively on the image of the judiciary because some of us are not lawyers so they can pardon us. As the Office of the President used to say, we think when you go to court you must be looking for justice not just a technicalities.
“So when the law is becoming too technical or so – in the words of the National Security Minister, interpreted in one way such that others can think that no, the judiciary is always for one side of the coin I don’t think it augurs very well for them,” he said.
Moreover, Mr Domelevo stressed the importance of the judiciary safeguarding public confidence in their ability to deliver justice.
“I am not saying that they’re wrong every time they take their decisions, but like Honourable Kan Dapaah said the decisions must be such that we can say ‘oh, this one we agree’ and if we normally agree with them and there are some that we don’t agree with we can give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe it is professional, it is technical, we didn’t understand it.
“But when it is a common sense issue and even we think it doesn’t pass the test of common sense then we wonder how a professional will see it in the future. It affects the fight against corruption seriously because mind you, like I said earlier on, once you start fighting corruption, corruption will fight you.
“And the ultimate place that you go when you’re fighting corruption is the court and if you’re not sure the court is going to do the right thing or support what is right then it becomes a problem,” he said.
Domelevo encouraged the Special Prosecutor to persevere in the fight against corruption despite facing numerous challenges.