A three member panel of the Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Victor Ofoe, has unanimously upheld an appeal application by Dr. Nana Owusu Ensaw, the third accused person in the case of the Republic versus Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie and four others.
He appealed against the ruling of the High Court ordering him to open his defence in respect of two out of six charges preferred against him by the State.
The decision of the Court of Appeal leaves him acquitted and discharged of all charges preferred against him by the State.
The High Court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, on the May 23, 2019, delivered a ruling on a Submission of No Case application by defence lawyers in the NCA Case in which it ordered all the accused persons to open their defence because the state had established a prima facie case against them.
However, in respect of Dr Ensaw, the court acquitted him of four of the six charges, but ordered him to open his defence in the remaining two.
The Court of Appeal indicated that from the face of the record before them, the trial High Court did not establish a prima facie evidence against Dr Ensaw and that the High Court misapplied the law when it ruled that same had been established by the prosecution in respect of the two counts.
The High Court is expected to abide by the decision of the court of Appeal when it delivers its judgement on the 12 of May.
Alleged embezzlement
Five persons — Dr Ensaw, William Matthew Tetteh Tevie, a former Director-General of the NCA; Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a former Board Chairman of the NCA; Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, and George Derek Oppong, a businessman — have been accused of stealing $3 million out of $4 million of state funds said to be for the purchase of a cyber-security surveillance equipment, known as the Pegasus machine, for the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which was sponsored by the NCA.
