• Defense lawyer says his clients were entrapped to be incriminated
• Witness tells court that Dr Frederick Mac Palm was mastermind of alleged coup
A defense lawyer for four out of ten accused persons standing trial for plotting to overthrow the government, has argued that the third witness of the prosecution in the case, made it an objective to entrap and incriminate his clients.
Cross-examining Sergeant Awarf Sule of the Ghana Armed forces during the Accra High Court’s sitting on Wednesday, November 3, 2021, lawyer Ephraim A. Vordoagu put it to the star witness in the trial, that he embarked on a deliberate journey to set up a trap to incriminate the accused persons including Dr Fredrick Yao Mac Palm.
“At best, you embarked upon the entrapment of the accused; in other words, you embarked upon a calculated journey to set up a trap for the accused person to incriminate the accused persons,” the defense counsel told the witness.
In response, Sergeant Awarf Sule maintained that overthrowing the government in a coup plot, was the idea of Dr Mac Palm and Bright Alan Deborah Ofosu – who is one of the accused persons.
This came after the defense lawyer had questioned the witness that his evidence of video and tape recordings presented before the court does not prove that the idea of overthrowing the government was hatched by his clients.
The High Court on Tuesday ruled to admit into evidence a hard drive containing videos and audios which allegedly captures the activities of the 10 accused persons as they were plotting a coup.
The third prosecution witness has already told the court that Dr Mac Palm contacted him to assist him organise a coup.
According to the witness, he brought the matter to the attention of his superiors in the Ghana Armed Forces who issued him audio and video recording devices to capture the activities of the group during their meetings.
Putting the third witness through cross-examination on Wednesday, Lawyer Adawudu maintained that the inconsistencies in the durations of the video and audio recordings presented as evidence, proves that it had been edited to incriminate his clients.
But responding to the defense lawyers’ line of questioning on the inconsistencies in the duration of the recordings, the witness said it was as a result of the programming of the device used.
The witness said the video recorder used, recorded and saved data intermittently hence the lapses.
According to the witness, his superiors had earlier issued him with a video recorder which malfunctioned on the first day of the groups meeting hence the issuance of an audio recorder by his superiors.
But the defense lawyer said that the claim of the witness being issued a second recording device, was an afterthought by the witness, to cover up the different time lapses between the video and audio evidence.
The case has been adjourned to Monday, November 8, 2021.
Dr Fredrick Yao Mac Palm is the alleged mastermind of a plot to overthrow government