Jurors In Eastern Region Boycott Court Sessions

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Jurors In Eastern Region Boycott Court Sessions

Details: Parent Category: Justice & Security; Category: Law Reports; Created on Tuesday, 19 June 2012 00:00; Hits: 3000

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Jurors In Eastern Region Boycott Court Sessions

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Members of the jury in the Eastern Region are boycotting courts sessions involving rape and murder cases at the various High Courts in Koforidua.

The refusal of the 16 jurors to be part of the court sessions follow the non-payment of their allowances over the past 10 months by the Judicial Secretariat of the Judicial Service.

Each member of the jury is to be paid GHc10 daily, made up of GHc3 for transportation and GHc7 per sitting.

The jury had intended to carry out their boycott on Monday, during the hearing of a criminal case involving a 30-year-old fashion designer at Koforidua who sodomised a 24-year-old caterer from Accra.

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However, the timely intervention of the High Court judge, Justice Henry A. Kwofie, caused the seven-member jury to rescind their decision.

The Forman of the jury, Mr James Attipoe, in the presence of his colleagues at the premises of the Koforidua High Court, told graphic.com.gh that the delay in the payment of their allowances had “caused many public servants to lose interest in serving as jurors”.

“Since September 2011, our number has reduced from 24 to16, mainly because many of the jurors have to use their monthly salaries to foot their transportation cost to and from the courts”, he stated.

Mr Attipoe indicated that some members of the jury had to travel from as far as Suhum, Kukurantumi, Nkurakan, Oyoko and some distant suburbs of Koforidua to the courts daily for sittings.

“There are times some jurors have to walk from their work places to the courts in order to ensure uninterrupted trial of cases”, he said.

“We are demanding a full payment of our allowances, failure of which we will not be part of any panel sitting on any case at the High Courts”, he added.

He therefore urged the Judicial Secretariat to pay them their allowance to ensure smooth trials of criminal cases at the High Courts.

Source: Graphic.com.gh