By Beatrice Oppon
The Accra High Court has fined former Captain of the Black Stars Asamoah Gyan and his manager, Samuel Anim Addo, one million Ghana cedis in general and special damages to Anthony Osafo for malicious prosecution against him.
The Judge Justice Ernest Owusu-Daapah also awarded a cost of sixty thousand Ghana cedis against Asamoah Gyan and his manager.
The plaintiff, Anthony Osafo who is also a journalist, claimed that in June 2015, there were publications of one Sarah Kwabla accusing Asamoah Gyan of rape and sodomy. Anthony said Sarah contacted him with photo evidence of the alleged act, as well as some WhatsApp chats and audios with Asamoah Gyan.
Per the facts, lawyers for Mr. Gyan denied the incident and maintained that the former footballer had consensual sex with the said Sarah. The journalist who claimed to have had a balanced story published series of the story on a blog he worked for at that time, which saw one of the handlers in Asamoah Gyan’s camp, Nii Armah Amarteifio, acting on the instructions of Anim Addo, contact the editor of the said blogs and plead that the publication be stopped with a promise that Asamoah Gyan was prepared to offer money to that effect.
Anthony claimed that, unknown to him, Asamoah Gyan had lodged a complaint with the police, accusing him and his media organisation of attempting to extort money from him. Based on that, he and three others were arrested and prosecuted in 2015.
After a four-year trial at the Circuit Court, they were acquitted and discharged on March 20, 2019. Anthony then sued Asamoah Gyan and his Manager Samuel Anim Addo, for malicious prosecution.
Justice Owusu-Dapaah held that lawyers for the plaintiff were able to prove that the intention of Asamoah Gyan and his manager was to achieve their own purposes rather than bring a criminal prosecution against the journalist.
The Judge accordingly fined Asamoah Gyan and Anim Addo nine hundred thousand general damages and another hundred thousand Ghana cedis to be paid to the plaintiff as his monthly earnings from his employment, which was terminated from 2015 to 2023, due to the prosecution against him.
