Editorial: Questions For John Hardy

John Hardy QC, the Crown Prosecutor who name some Ghanaian political figures (mainly of the NDC stock) in the Mabey & Johnson trial in the United Kingdom, is here in Ghana as guest of the NPP�s Danquah Institute. According to the Danquah Institute officials, John Hardy is in the country to deliver a couple of lectures on money laundering legislation with a view to helping Ghana fashion out appropriate legislation to fight this crime. Well, The Ghanaian Lens welcomes John Hardy to Ghana. Mr. Hardy, since his arrival, has granted a couple of interviews on the Mabey & Johnson trial. Citi FM, one of the local stations to which Mr Hardy granted an interview quoted him on the station�s website as having stated that �the question of prosecution of individual remains an open question at the moment. It�s not necessarily the case that no further proceedings will be taken against them�it may be dealt with�because the issue is still under consideration.� What was not clear from the report was whether Mr. Hardy was talking about Ghanaian officials those names he made public during the trial or whether he was talking about officials of M&J. Be that as it may, The Ghanaian Lens expects that once Mr. Hardy has shown that he is not averse to speaking about the trial and his role in it, he would find it expedient to explain to the people of Ghana whether he believes that he treated fairly the Ghanaian officials whose names he mentioned in open court when those officials were not party to the case under trial and had no way of clearing their name at the trial. Mr. Hardy might also want to confirm or refute whether it is true that he went ahead to mention the names of the Ghanaian officials even though the trial judge had indicated that the names should not be mentioned. Give the fact that there were so many gaping factual inaccuracies in the case that Mr. Hardy presented in court, especially in relation to NDC and officials of the party, does he think that he did a thorough job? For instance, Mr. Hardy told the court that Messrs Sepa Yankey, Kwame Peprah, and Ibrahim Adam had been convicted in Ghana on corruption charges when the facts available are clear on the matter that the said conviction was not on charges of corruption. Indeed, the trial judge, in passing judgment in the said trial, took time to explain that the accused persons were not on trial for corruption or malfeasance. In the face of this, what would be Mr. Hardy�s reaction to anyone who suggests that he deliberately twisted this well known fact in order to paint the Ghanaian officials in the blackest possible light so as to gain a favourable disposition of the trial judge? One of the affected individuals, Dr. Sepa Yankey, is on record to have stated that the mentioning of his name at the trial was politically motivated. Indeed, he went on to accuse personalities in the NPP, specifically Mr. Kufuor, as having plotted that whole scheme to do him in. We on The Ghanaian Lens are wondering whether Dr. Yankey is not being vindicated now, given that the Danquah Institute, a highly political body of the NPP stock, is now playing host to Mr. Hardy. We do hope that Mr. Hardy would find space during his lecturers to answer the questions that we have raised. We also hope that he would find time and space during his lectures to explain the factual inaccuracies in the case he presented to the court.