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The New Patriotic Party has welcomed back the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Searchlight, Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie, who was released from prison custody yesterday, after serving a ten- day jail term slapped on him by the Supreme Court for criminal contempt. The editor went to the NPP headquarters to thank the party, for the support its members showed him during the time he was in custody. Although there was no officially sanctioned visit by the NPP to the Searchlight editor during his incarceration, Mr Kuranchie has thanked the party and its members for the spontaneous show of solidarity and support that he received. The respected member and advocate of the NPP had several NPP members, including Volta Regional executives, and journalists making the long and uncertain trips to visit him as he was moved to five prisons during the first five days of his sentence. The General Secretary of the NPP, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John, who was in the Supreme Court for the election petition, during Mr Kuranchie's courtesy call at the party office, said, "indeed, the NPP is happy that he is back from jail well and hearty. Our prayers were with his wife and family during his incarceration, considering the psychological torture that the prison authorities put him through by sending him on a long involuntary tour of prisons in Ghana." Sir John, however, stressed that the show of love that the editor is receiving from well-wishes, including NPP supporters "should not be stretched to mean that the NPP is protesting against the decision of the Court in Ken Kuranchie's case. We respect the decision of the Court, just as we did in the Sammy Awuku case." Sir John described Ken Kuranchie as �a loyal member of the party, who also happens to be one of the leading journalists in the country who fell foul of the law through his writings. It does not make us love him less. But, the spontaneous show of love by our members should not be seen as defying the Court." "Should we say that because a whole Cabinet Minister was at the prison gate to meet a member of the NDC Communications Team, Stephen Atubiga, who was also jailed for contempt, it means the President, his government and the ruling party are all in defiance of the Court? I think that would be stretching it," Sir John said. "We will continue to caution our supporters to respect the justices and we will continue to pray for them and we will continue to pray for the justice and victory that we are seeking for in this election petition," he added. Sir John said the party has since taken proactive steps to get its supporters, especially communicators, to mind their language and not say anything that will be contemptuous of the Court. He added: "The Court through its warnings and actions against the three men who have so far appeared before them has left all of us in no doubt what it considers to be contemptuous. It is important for all of us to not say things that will undermine the authority of the Court. It has a very arduous task to make a determination in this historic election petition. Let us all focus on that and do what we can to keep the sanctity, peace and stability of our country as we eagerly await the verdict of the Court." In light of this, the NPP General Secretary commissioned "comprehensive guidelines on how not to fall foul of contempt of the Court for the benefit of his party communicators, members and the general public." He said he instructed the NPP Communications Directorate to release the guidelines to the general public, "So that even the NDC may benefit from it. It is not in our collective interest that things are said from any side that can cause disaffection for the Court, undermine their authority and give any citizen the false impression that we have a choice whether or not to accept the decision of the Court." In the guidelines commissioned by NPP General Secretary, he, amongst others, urged communicators �not predict the outcome of the presidential election petition no matter how confident you are about the case or how tempting it sounds. You are not a judge sitting on the panel and your comments in the media may be construed as prejudicial.� The Supreme Court hearing the election petition has had cause to take action against three persons so far for comments it deemed to be in contempt of the proceedings ongoing at the court. A deputy director of Communications of the NPP, Sammy Awuku, was banned from attending the hearing of the Presidential Election Petition after making contemptuous statements against the court. This was followed by the handing down of prison sentences to Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie and Stephen Atubiga, an NDC communicator, for various contemptuous remarks made by the pair. Ken Kuranchie was handed a 10-day prison term for a front page comment published in the Thursday, June 27, 2013 edition of his newspaper. Justice William Atuguba, President of the panel, said the reference made by Mr Kuranchie to other �loose talkers� subtly accused the panel of being bias. He wondered why senior journalist would cite the panel for bias when at the same time Sammy Awuku, whose interest he sought to protect, had apologized for the comments he made. Stephen Atubiga, on the other hand, was reported have made some contemptuous comments on Asempa FM on June 25, which was later published in the New Statesman Newspaper. Atubiga had stated on Asempa FM that even if the ruling party were to lose the on-going court case, it would never hand over power. He said the NDC party would meet the New Patriotic Party boot for boot and that �Ghana cannot contain all of us if the NPP wins the court case�.