Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has justified his decision to discontinue several high-profile prosecutions, stating that legal and ethical considerations informed his actions.
Dr. Ayine has faced public scrutiny for halting cases involving officials and associates of the previous Mahama administration, including the Saglemi Housing Project, the prosecution of Bank of Ghana’s former Deputy Governor Johnson Asiama, the Democracy Hub case, and the trial of former COCOBOD CEO, Dr. Stephen Opuni.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 Dr. Ayine insisted that his decision was rooted in legal integrity and sound professional judgment.
“For ethical and professional reasons, I couldn’t in good conscience continue to prosecute some of the cases. The second was that some of the cases, in my own review and analysis of the charges, showed clearly that the charges were defective, and some were far against the promptness of plain commonsense,” he explained.
He further argued that certain cases lacked the necessary evidence to justify their continuation.
“The third was that in some of the cases, the evidence led so far showed that there was a reasonable doubt, as to the guilt of the accused persons and no prosecutor should continue to pursue a case in the face of overwhelming doubt regarding the guilt of accused persons,” Dr. Ayine stated.
Additionally, he raised concerns about judicial conduct in some of the trials.
“In most of the cases I had terminated proceedings, the conduct of some of the individual judges left so much to be desired,” he added.
Dr. Ayine emphasized that all individuals affected by the discontinued prosecutions had been acquitted and discharged, reaffirming that his decision was not politically motivated but rather aligned with constitutional and legal principles.