Mallam Isa is ill in prison

Jailed former youth and sports minister, Mallam Ali Yusif Isa, is unwell and has been referred to see a specialist at the Police Hospital. Court Warrant Officer Augustine Arthur informed the panel hearing Mallam Isa’s appeal case on Tuesday that the former minister was not in court because he was ill and had reported to the Government Hospital at Nsawam for medical treatment but was referred to the Police Hospital.

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday, April 2, give its ruling in an appeal brought before it by Mallam Isa, against his conviction and sentence. The five-member panel presided over by Justice Edward Kwame Wiredu, Chief Justice, announced the date at the court’s sitting on Tuesday.

Not satisfied with the Court of Appeal’s ruling of October 23, 2001, upholding the judgement of a Fast Track, which jailed his client, Ambrose Dery, counsel for Mallam Isa late last year, brought the application before the Supreme Court. His grounds for the appeal are that his client’s conviction for stealing and fraudulently causing financial loss to the State, cannot be supported in law, having regard to the evidence adduced by the trial court.

It is counsel’s submission that the trial judge erred in law when he held that there was direct evidence that his client dishonestly appropriated the 46,000 dollars and fraudulently caused financial loss to the state when in fact, there was no direct evidence whatsoever to that effect.

Counsel further submitted that the trial judge also erred when he decided that circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution, led irresistibly to his client’s guilt, and that the said evidence was not compatible with any other rational inference, although there was copious evidence to support rational inferences.

According to counsel, it was also wrong for the trial judge to have held that his client’s ex-body guard who is a serving police officer, and who was present at his client’s office on February 23, 2001 when he left for Sudan, was not a vital witness in the case.

Dery also submitted that the trial judge further erred when he held that the evidence of two prosecution witnesses, namely, Alex Asante and Wolarnyo Agrah, protocol officer and former general secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) respectively, were credible, when in actual fact, their evidence raised several doubts.

Counsel concluded that it was wrong on the part of the trial judge to have averred that the prosecution proved its case or discharged its burden of proof beyond all reasonable doubts, when there were several doubts raised in the prosecution’s evidence.

The other members of the panel were Justice George Kingsley Acquah, Justice Sophia Akuffo, Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh and Dr Justice Seth Twum. On July 20, 2001, an Accra Fast Track Court presided over by Justice Julius Ansah, Appeal Court Judge with an additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, convicted Mallam Isa on two counts of stealing and fraudulently causing financial loss to the State.

He was found guilty of stealing 46,000 dollars meant as an imprest and payment of bonuses of members of the Senior National football Team, the Black Stars, during a World Cup qualifying match in Sudan on February 25, 2001. Justice Ansah accordingly sentenced Mallam Isa to four years imprisonment on each of the two counts, adding that both sentences were to run concurrently. Additionally, he was fined 10 million cedis or in default 12 months imprisonment.

The court further ordered the dismissed Youth and Sports Minister to refund the 46,000 dollars to the State within one month, or serve an additional two-year jail term.

When the case was called, Mallam Isa was not in court, and Chief Officer Augustine Arthur, Court Warrant Officer (CWO) informed the panel that the appellant was indisposed.

CWO Arthur said Mallam Isa reported at the Government Hospital at Nsawam for medical treatment where he was referred to the Police Hospital to see a specialist.

On Friday, August 18, 2001, a Special Court of Appeal, dismissed an application for bail for the jailed ex-Minister of Youth and Sports pending the determination of an appeal filed against his conviction and sentence by his counsel, Ambrose Dery.

Again, on Tuesday, October 23 the same year, the Court of Appeal dismissed another petition against Mallam Isa’s conviction and sentence filed on his behalf by his counsel.

The three-member panel presided over by Justice Omari Sasu with Justice Sophia Adinyira and Justice Sule Gbadegbe as members, contended that the “convict’s grounds of appeal failed and could not be entertained.”

The court, however, quashed an order by the Fast Track Court that compelled the former Youth and Sports Minister to serve additional two years in prison if he failed to refund the 46,000 dollars he could not account for.

This order, in the court’s view, contravened the provisions of Section Seven (b) of the Criminal Code.