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Hearing of the case at an Accra Human Rights Court involving the seizure of the passport of the former Foreign Minister, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) had to be halted yesterday as lawyers from the Attorney-General�s Department were absent. The Deputy Attorney-General, Mr. Barton Oduro, who said he had been assigned to handle the case, sent a letter to the trial Judge, Justice A. Derry, even before the case was called, with a doctor�s report saying he was indisposed and would as a result not be available till July 24.This obviously did not go down well with counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Godfred Yeboah-Dame who expressed surprise that in spite of the large number of lawyers working at the Attorney-General�s Department, none of them was assigned to hold brief for him. According to him, the action was an attempt to frustrate the hearing of the case because another lawyer could have been sent to the court as this was a case bordering on the infringement of the fundamental human rights of the former Minister. He told the court that because the legal year would soon end, the case needed to be heard soon so that a ruling would be given before the end of the legal year.The judge subsequently adjourned the case to July 24 2009 for the hearing of the preliminary legal objection. The former Minister dragged the A-G and the Director of BNI to court for illegality, abuse of power and unconstitutionality, and described the action of the BNI Director as unreasonable, capricious and arbitrariness after his passport was seized. Mr. Owusu-Adjei reportedly received a phone call from the BNI to report to their offices for investigations into the case in which the former Kufuor administration pleaded with the government of India to allow rice to be imported from that country to Ghana. The applicant said when he reported at the BNI offices, he was not charged but a number of BNI officers were dispatched to follow him to his private residence to ensure that he handed over his passport to them. However, the BNI had denied any wrongdoing by seizing the passport of the applicant, saying what they did was in accordance with Article 14 of the constitution which allows them to restrict the movement of any person who they want to investigate. The BNI rather pointed accusing fingers at the former Foreign Minister who they say harbours an intention to abscond since he has been pleading that his passport be returned to him at a time he knew he was under investigation.