I Want No Bail - Daasebre Gyamenah

Ghanaian music star, Daasebre Gyamenah made a sombre appearance in a London Court this week to face drug charges and stunned everybody by asking his lawyers not to apply for bail.

Counsel for Daasebre Gyamenah, Mr Mohammed Reza Ally of Ally Lindsay Solicitors, told journalists ?based on the directives of my client, he did not want me to request for the bail,? he added.

As to why Gyamenah prayed him not to request for the bail, Mr Ally preferred to keep it to himself. Investigations conducted have also revealed that Daasebre does not want people to contact him in his prison cells.

Daasebre is facing trial in the UK for illegal drug importation into the UK and pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were first preferred against him at the Isleworth Crown Court in London.

Wearing a sparkling white T-shirt over blue jeans and also spoting his wedding ring and a nice wrist watch, Daasebre had a sombre demeanour; his hair and moustache looked unkept which was very unusual with the often curly-haired crowd puller.

Besides, he looked so dejected and disappointed, in contrast to the previous appearances at the Uxbridge Magistrate?s Court.

He was remanded in prison custody to reappear before the same court on November 20, 2006. Daasebre was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, June 29, this year, when he disembarked from a British Airways flight from Accra to London and charged for possessing substances suspected to be cocaine.

The case was committed to the Crown Court at its last sitting on August 8, 2006 because the Magistrate?s Court had been denied jurisdiction over the case, due to the nature of the offence.

The Isleworth Crown Court is the next highest court in the area which deals with such serious offences as drug cases.

Initially, the substance was valued at 100,000 pounds, but at the Crown Court last Thursday, the value was reduced to 84,988 pounds.

His charge was read to him on Thursday, June 29, 2006, by the prosecutor who said: ?You unlawfully imported illegal drugs into the country from Accra, Ghana, in contravention of Section 3, Subsection 1, under the UK Illegal Drug Importation Act of 1979.

Are you guilty or not guilty?? To that he answered ?not guilty?. Speaking to this reporter later, Mr Ally reiterated that his client stood a high chance of being discharged, considering the evidence gathered from Ghana and in the UK.

He, however, did not disclose the evidence. He also did not reveal what his defence would be, explaining that it would not be a good strategy to do that.