Supreme Court Must Accept Criticisms

A private legal practitioner and a lecturer at GIMPA, Professor Stephen Kweku Asare has called on the nine judges adjudicating on the 2012 election hearing at the Supreme Court to stay focused and not be disrupted by comments and opinions expressed outside the court which does not have any impact on the case. According to him, the same Constitution which empowers judges also gives equal power to citizens to freely express themselves. Speaking on OkayFM's "Ade Akyea Abia" Morning Show, he said that just as the court accepts praises from Ghanaians on its activities, the court in that same vein must be prepared to accept criticisms; indicating to the court that the era of military rule where people were not allowed to express their views is over. He reiterated that if Sammy Awuku expressed his opinion that the action taken by the Supreme Court is �hypocritical and selective�, he saw nothing wrong with that expression. He enlightened that in law there is direct and indirect contempt which must be distinguished; in that the Supreme Court has power over the direct contempt because it happens in the court room whereas the power of the court is limited over indirect contempt which happens outside of court. According to the law lecturer, the ruling of the judges in the Sammy Awuku's incident was a �Kangaroo trial� because the judges acted as the prosecutor and the judge without any lawyer to defend him (Awuku); stating that a different judge should have been made to sit on the Sammy Awuku�s case to avoid bias ruling.