On Friday, December 8, 2023, an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Dr Ernest Owusu Dapaa pronounced judgment on a malicious prosecution case involving former Black Stars captain, Asamoah Gyan, another versus a journalist, Anthony Osarfo.
The court awarded the journalist in excess of a million Ghana cedis in damages in a case in which Gyan and his personal manager, Samuel Anim Addo were said to have caused his arrest and prosecution over a sex scandal involving the player.
The court held that a police report claiming Osarfo was seeking to extort Gyan after he broke the scandal involving Gyan and one Sandra Kwabla were false; yet the defendants managed to drag him through court for months till his acquittal and discharge along with three others.
The court said available evidence showed that the Plaintiff was never extorting money from Gyan when the report was made for his arrest over an alleged publication.
Justice Dapaa said the Plaintiff discharged the burden of proof and held that the manager of Asamoah Gyan set the whole malicious prosecution in motion.
Consequently, the court entered judgment as follows:
a. The sum of GH¢900,000 in damages to the plaintiff.
b. The court, additionally, awarded the plaintiff GH¢111,000 for 111 months that he lost his job, which was paying him GH¢1,000 at the time.
c. A cost of GH¢60,000 was also awarded against Asamoah Gyan and his manager.
This brought the total to GH¢1,071,000 against the defendants (Asamoah Gyan and Samuel Anim Addo).
Gyan has, meanwhile, confirmed that he will appeal the awful outcome of the case claiming that there is a conspiracy somewhere and that he did not deserve to lose the case.
Below is the full judgment of the court:
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Asamoah Gyan