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| Tsatsu Tsikata – I won’t run from justice |
5/29/2007 |
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The former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, says he has no plans to avoid prosecution for any wrong he has committed.
Rather, his running legal battles with the government are to ensure that the proper procedures are followed and the judiciary weaned off political influences.
Tsatsu Tsikata who is facing criminal trial for allegedly causing financial loss to the state and intentionally misapplying state funds totaling 2.345 billion cedis, petitioned the Africa Commission on Human and People''s Rights in April of 2006 over what he says is an abuse of his rights by the government of Ghana.
He appeared before the Commission on Sunday to prosecute his case, and told Joy News’ Elvis Kwashie that the Commission, at the end of its 44th ordinary session in Accra, was likely to rule on his case.
Tsatsu said he was facing criminal charges based on a retroactive legislation for actions that were not criminal at the times that they were done, and the fact that he was also being denied a fair trial amounted to abuses of his rights.
He denied claims that his application before the Commission had been dismissed because it dealt with the same matters for which he was standing trial in the law courts in Ghana.
Tsatsu explained that remedies he had applied for at the Commission were for a declaration that “you cannot hold a person criminally accountable for acts that the person did which at that time were not against any criminal legislation and I’m also asking them to make determinations regarding the way in which the government has interfered with certain judicial processes from the beginning of my case and to show that that amounts to a denial of a fair trail.”
“I am not running away at all. On the contrary I am going through the justice system very thoroughly and I’m making sure that the issues that come under Ghana’s own Constitution are also respected and these are matters that have gone up the ladder of the court system and I’m making sure that at the same time when there are also international obligations that the country has under the African Charter on Human and People''s Rights, those obligations are also respected. I’m not at all running away…I have given evidence myself, I’ve been cross-examined on the matters in question and I am confident that the defence that I have put up is clear and we are continuing to seek further testimony from an international organisation which was involved in the transaction that the accusation relates to.”
On the substantive case of misapplying state funds, he has filed a motion at the Supreme Court seeking to compel the International Finance Corporation to appear as a witness in the case.
The trial court and the Court of Appeal, which dealt with the application previously, both dismissed it.
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