Eric Amoateng freed

Former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North in the Brong Ahafo Region, Eric Amoateng has been acquitted and discharged by a Circuit in Accra.

The former lawmaker was standing trial for possessing a fake passport. The ex-MP pleaded not guilty to the charge of possessing a forged traveling document. Delivering her judgment, the trial judge Mrs. Justice Vivian Amoah concluded the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the former MP, who had completed serving a 10-year jail term in the USA for possessing cocaine, had dud traveling document on him. Amoateng was, on December 11, 2005, arrested in the United States for possessing heroin valued at $6 million. He was tried, convicted and subsequently sentenced to a 10-year prison term and was released on July 30, 2014.

About 2.20 p.m. on August 7, 2014, Amoateng arrived at the Kotoka International Airport and during his arrival formalities, he was found to be in possession of a Ghanaian passport with the number H02347080. The passport, the prosecution said, was in the name of one Barbara Inkum and was issued on February 23, 2009 at a time when Amoateng was in prison in the USA. The prosecution said analysis of the passport by the Document Fraud Office of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) showed that the passport was a forged one as its bio data page had been substituted. However, the court has ruled in his favour.

#News #Sports #Headlinesnews