Lawyer Maurice Ampaw has promised to ensure that Sarah Kwablah, the student charged with conspiracy to extort money from Asamoah Gyan, appears in court to stand trial.
Sarah Kwablah did not appear in court on the first day the case was called and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest.
Investigators told the court they had officially informed Sarah of the date and time for the hearing but she was simply not cooperating with them.
The case was called for the second time yesterday and interestingly, Lawyer Maurice Ampaw told the court Sarah was not aware of the court case.
According to the prosecution, led by ACP Moses Atibilla, Sarah was informed to come to court for the trial but she said she would not do so.
The trial judge, Ms Afia Agbanu Kumador, while adjourning hearing until October 12, stated that the bench warrant for the arrest of Sarah was still in force.
Accused Persons
The lawyer who represented Sarah, Osafo Anthony and Lester Ekow Micah stated that Sarah had been taken by surprise, adding that he would ensure that the accused was present in court at the next sitting.
Theresa Tebi, counsel for Chris Handler, a blogger, 24, said she had just entered the case and as such had been instructed to take an adjournment in order to study the case and act accordingly.
Sarah Missing
The investigator in the case was emphatic that the search for Sarah was still ongoing.
Sarah had been playing hide and seek with the police, compelling the court at the previous sitting to issue a bench warrant for her arrest.
She is being tried alongside two others for conspiracy to extort and extortion.
Snub
Sarah, Anthony and Chris have been charged for extorting GH¢25,000 from one Samuel Anim Addo by means of threat.
Ekow Micah has been charged for allegedly abetting the three others to extort the said amount from the complainant.
Anthony and Chris are currently on bail in the sum of GH¢60,000 with three sureties each while Micah was bailed in the sum of GH¢20,000 with one surety.
Background
The facts of the case are that the complainant is a businessman and the manager of the Asamoah Gyan Foundation.
Prosecution said Chris is the owner of GHbase website while Sarah is a student resident at Dunkonaah at Kasoa.
According to ACP Atibilla, Anthony was an employee of Chris and that in the month of June 2015, an alleged sodomy story involving the skipper of the Black Stars, Asamoah Gyan, broke in the Ghanaian media.
The prosecutor stated that Sarah alleged in a publication that Asamoah Gyan had a sexual affair and unnatural carnal knowledge of her and she became pregnant.
Discussion
ACP Atibilla indicated that Sarah discussed the issue with Micah and the two met with Anthony and Chris to publish the story on their website to scare Asamoah Gyan to give them money.
He said Anthony and Chris published the story on their site and promised to publish a sex tape of the affair between Gyan and Sarah in their subsequent edition.
The prosecutor further told the court that a witness in the case read the story on GHbase.com and quickly alerted Samuel to enable them stop the publication, adding that Samuel contacted the publishers on phone and they threatened to make public the sex tape unless a substantial amount was paid or a house was bought to compensate Sarah.
ACP Atibilla said the complainant, in a bid to protect the image of his client, asked the publishers to hold on with the publication whilst he thought of the issue.
He stated that Anthony and Chris kept on threatening to publish the video to defame Asamoah Gyan and called for an urgent payment of the money.
Decoy
As a result, the prosecutor disclosed, Samuel feigned interest to pay and when the publishers were contacted, they in consultation with Sarah and Micah charged a fee of GH¢30,000.
The senior police officer posited that Samuel bargained with the publishers and they settled on GH¢25,000, which the complainant agreed to pay at a meeting at Landing Restaurant in Accra.
ACP Atibilla noted that Samuel, after the arrangement, reported the case to the police.
He said on July 29 Samuel met Chris at the restaurant for payment, where an amount of $1000, GH¢6,000 and a cheque of GH¢15,000 were paid to him.
The police officer stated that Anthony was arrested after receipt of the money by the police and the others were subsequently arrested.
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