sources at the Fast Track High Court hearing cases involving judges implicated in the judicial bribery scandal have revealed that Justice Paul Dery’s contempt application against editors of the New Crusading Guide newspaper and two others was never slated to be heard on the 12th of October 2015.
Our sources say claims by Justice Dery’s lawyers that their contempt application was dealt with and dismissed on the 28th of September 2015 without their knowledge and in their absence comes as most shocking.
Court of Appeal judge Justice Gertrude Torkonoo dismissed the case as being frivolous and incompetent and also because the injunction application forming the basis for it had been voluntarily withdrawn on the 22nd of September when the video on the scandal first aired in Accra.
Anas has been appearing before the committee probing the judicial scandal
The source also reveals that Justice Dery’s lawyers took a wrong step in law when they wrote to the Registrar of the Court asking it to stay (halt) proceedings because they had filed a fresh writ at the Supreme Court challenging the processes by which undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas obtained the videos and was screening same in violation of the constitution.
According to this source, “the applications for contempt were fixed for 28th and 29th September and never for October 12th.”
It also added that the case was rightly dealt with and dismissed even without service of the application on some of those affected.
Justice Dery has since written to the Chief Justice to investigate the matter and also filed an appeal against the dismissal of the case.
However, myjoyonline.com has also sighted the original contempt application filed by counsel for Justice Dery asking the court to move the hearing on October 12.
