March 11, GNA - An Accra Fast Track High Court on Friday convicted a washing bay assistant, who had been on remanded for nine years to seven years' imprisonment on charges of conspiracy and robbery. Emmanuel Yaw Aseidu, pleaded not guilty but a seven-member jury unanimously returned a verdict of guilty on him.

Aseidu's accomplice Charles Yaw Acheampong is at large. Handing down the sentence, the Court said it took into consideration the number of years Asiedu had been on remand and the increase in robbery cases.

When Aseidu was asked to comment before his sentence was handed down, he pleaded with the Court to consider the years he had been on remand.

He further pleaded with the Court to forgive him and deal leniently with him.

"I am not that type, it was through friends that I got entangled in this matter," he told the Court. The case of the Prosecution was that on December 26 1996, at about 0200 hours, Aseidu and Acheampong asked Mr Isaac Cudjoe, a taxi driver of Toyota Tercel with Registration number ER 1397 A to convey them from Madina to Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

When they arrived at Circle, one of the accused persons got down to talk see a friend and later asked Mr Cudjoe to take them to Awoshie because there were too many people at Circle. Prosecution said when they got to Awoshie, the area was unusually quite so Aseidu and Acheampong asked Mr Cudjoe to go further so that they could get down.

Mr Cudjoe, who became frightened, told them that he was not going any further and pleaded with them to pick their luggage and alight. Aseidu alighted and squeezed the neck of Mr Cudjoe while Acheampong cut him with a knife.

Prosecution said after the struggle, Mr Cujoe became weak and the accused persons took away the car keys and dragged him out of the taxi and bolted.

On December 27, 1996, a Police patrol from Sunyani intercepted the taxi at Abesim on the Kumasi-Sunyani Road, interrogated Asiedu and Acheampong and arrested them but Acheampong escaped while on the way to the Police station.