General News of Monday, 1 February 2021

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Election petition: SC must caution lawyers for breaking sub judice rule – Lawyer

Lawyers have been asked to desist from publicly expressing their views right after court hearing Lawyers have been asked to desist from publicly expressing their views right after court hearing

A private legal practitioner, Dennis Adjei Dwomoh is urging the Supreme Court to caution parties in the ongoing Election Petition trial to stop their public commentary on substantive matters before the court.

Some members of the Bar have expressed worry over the practice where lawyers for both the petitioner(Ex-President John Dramani Mahama) and the second respondent(President Akufo-Addo) right after exiting the Supreme Court, address the media and comment on the substantive matters and perform the job of the judges ahead of what they(Judges) are supposed to do.

Commenting on the issue on ‘News File’ show monitored by Kasapafmonline.com,
Lawyer Dennis Adjei Dwomoh who is the Managing Partner of Law Plus (Attorneys-at-Law) condemned the practice by the legal teams of the parties in the petition urging them to allow the apex court of the land to work.

“We should allow the court to work and even if practitioners will comment on the matter I think it should not be immediately after coming out of court because when they come out of court immediately, the adrenalin is high and sometimes these statements are made. So I hope that the court will caution both parties in terms of their expressions that they have made.

He added: “If you look at the news reports most of the reports sometimes take the tone of the commentary that was rendered by both parties practitioners. Looking at 2013, you realize that most of the commentary became more friendly after the court bare its teeth at contempt issues. So I hope our colleagues after court will not comment on same and if they’ll comment they should restrain themselves.”