Philip Fiifi Buckman, the lawyer representing Josephine Panyin Mensah, the lady at the centre of the fake kidnapping case in Takoradi, has indicated that the confession from his client to the police will be subjected to trial in court.
According to him, his client confessing does not necessarily mean she confessed to the offence charged with, therefore if the need be, that confession will be subjected to trial.
Speaking on the September 28, edition of the Good Evening Ghana programme, Fiifi Buckman explained, “the police are saying that she confessed to having committed the offence as charged but when you are brought to the court, the court raises your charges with you and asks whether you are guilty or not.
“So, she said that she was not guilty, so we need to go through the process. It is not any strategy. If we say confession, somebody has confessed or confession statement, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person actually confessed to the offence, it will be subjected to mini trial if the need be.”
When asked what are his chances and that of his client in the case, Buckman noted that lawyers were not trained to look out for who wins or loses the case, but to look out for justice.
“What we the lawyers look out for is not about whether or not your client is going to win or lose; especially in criminal matters, the only thing we are looking out for is that due process is done, justice is done. So at the end of the day, it is the justice that we are looking at not whether your client wins or loses,” adding “justice will be due process.”
He further indicated that by the close of today, his client will procure some documents in order to satisfy the bail condition and if not, “we have various means to ensure that we get her out of cells so that we can have conference with her. I must say that I have not had any full conference with her, I met for the first time in the courtroom and today [Tuesday] I told her that we are making sure we get her bail so she should be confident we are going to get it for her and that we shall meet…”
Background
Josephine was said to have left her home early morning of Thursday, September 16, on the pretext of going for jogging.
She was later reported missing, during which time someone is alleged to have called the family to demand a ransom for her release because she had been kidnapped.
The husband reported the matter to the police, which began a search for the woman who was said to be nine months pregnant.
Police investigators and health experts later discounted her stories – both pregnancy and kidnap, leading to her arraignment before the court.
Lawyer Philip Fiifi Buckman