Presidential Pardon for Montie FM trio would be ‘scandalous’ – Lawyers

Two legal experts are strongly opposed to suggestions of a Presidential Pardon for a broadcaster and two radio panelists who were jailed for contempt by the Supreme Court, Wednesday.

A Law Lecturer at the Central University, Yaw Oppong, and Counsel at Bentsi-Enchill Letsa & Ankomah, Korieh Duodu, unanimously agreed an Executive intervention in the four months' jail sentencing of the trio would be an attack on the independence of the Judiciary.

“It simply won’t be acceptable for the President to do that,” said Korieh Duodu, on current affairs programme, PM Express, on the Joy News channel on Multi TV, Wednesday evening.

There have been suggestions that the four-month jail sentencing plus a fine of GHȻ10,000 slapped on host of a political talk show on Accra-based Montie FM, Salifu Maase, and his two panelists, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, were too harsh.

The panelists, on the discussion programme, 'Pampaso', on the local language station, threatened to kill judges who ordered the deletion of over 56, 000 'illegal' names from the voters' register.

They were of the view that the Court's order to the Electoral Commission to delete the names from the electoral roll was not objective.

The host was said to have fuelled the threatening comments by the panelists and so did not restrain them from making the contemptuous comments.

Some commentators saw the sentencing -- which also fined owners of the station GHȻ30,000 -- as a slap in the face of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) since owners of the radio station, the host and the panelists are known affiliates of the party.

The commentators said President John Mahama could exercise his Executive Orders by granting the jailed NDC affiliates a Presidential Pardon in a bid to please party supporters who said the sentencing was unfair.

However, speaking on PM Express, Mr. Duodu said the issue could escalate if the President took such a step.

“That would be a scandalous thing to do,” he said, adding that the political twist to matter would make it untenable for the President to make an intervention.

“The Supreme Court, acting in its independent capacity, has made this ruling and expects the ruling to be carried out,” he stressed.

Yaw Oppong also told PM Express host Nana Ansah Kwao IV that the President must rise above the temptation to please NDC supporters by taking any counter action.

“It won’t be legally appropriate, that doesn’t mean it will be against the law, but in the general frame of things it will never be appropriate –especially in an election year,” he said.

“It may be politically disastrous. There are people who have vowed to vote this way or that way. But the few who determine who should be President of Ghana are the so called floating voters. Things like these can easily sway them. But it should not just be based on voting. It should be based on sound principles,” he added.

In Mr Duodu's view, the sentencing could stifle free speech and freedom of expression, although he admitted the threats on the Supreme Court Judges were unacceptable.

He said once journalists were too careful about what to say and what not to say, their watchdog role would be affected.

"It is a disaster if you start putting journalists in prison," he said, adding the ruling could even affect confidence in the Judiciary.

He described Wednesday's sentencing as an extreme example of contempt he had witnessed in all 16 years of his law practice.

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