The former Secretary to the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has requested from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), documents it is relying on to investigate his alleged involvement in the ongoing corruption-related case being undertaken by the office.

He made this request through his legal counsel who represented him in an Accra High Court, presided over by Olivia Obeng Owusu, on Monday, June 12, 2023, as reported by 3news.com.

In February 2023, Charles Bissue filed an injunction on the OSP from further investigating him, citing human rights abuse.

The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng, named Charles Bissue, who was then Secretary of the dissolved IMCIM, as a person of interest following a documentary by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

The lead attorney representing Charles Bissue, Nana Adjei Awuah, said in court that if the OSP hadn't given the records to the High Court, he would not have been able to file his requests for the injunction.

“In order to assist the court to do justice, all the relevant facts and evidence must be available to the court.

“After we filed our suit and the motion for an injunction, the necessity of the document we seek became apparent because of an article by the former Special Prosecutor. It was not as though we knew of it from the outset that we failed to raise it. What document are we referring to? It is the document that commenced the whole investigation process.

“It is the document that invoked the powers of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the applicant. In other words, but for that petition, very respectfully, he will not even be in court,” he is quoted to have said.

However, Dr Tuffour, who represented the OSP, gave a counter-response to the plea by the counsel of Charles Bissue, indicating that the two documents [reference the IMCIM report and the earlier injunction it filed] are not in any way connected.

“This application for an injunction is founded on the statement of claim. The applicant’s case is determined by his pleadings and these pleadings informed the injunction. In his pleadings, there is absolutely nothing referring to the document he is seeking the first defendant to produce.

“After filing his case, he comes across some other piece of information that they seek to make part of their case, they know what to do. You cannot file a motion to produce. There is really nothing that joins the two motions,” Dr Tuffuor argued.

The case has been adjourned to Tuesday, July 4, 2023, after counsel for Charles Bissue told the court he is unwell.

Charles Bissue is being investigated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as part of investigations into the report of the IMCIM by former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

You can also watch the latest episode of People & Places here:





NW/AE