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The Supreme Court has dismissed Anas Aremeyaw Anas' application for certiorari against Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin Central.

A five-member panel of the apex court presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, dismissed the certiorari application seeking an order to quash an earlier High Court decision.

The ace investigative journalist filed the application requesting a nullification of the High Court's decision, after the court ruled against him in his defamation suit against Kennedy Agyapong.

Background

Mr Aremeyaw Anas commenced the legal action in 2018, asking the High Court to award aggravated damages to the tune of GH¢25 million arising from defamatory materials published by the MP.

But in a March 15th, 2023 ruling, the Court presided over by Justice Eric Baah, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, dismissed the case for lacking merit. 

The judge had added that although the words spoken against Anas were factual and capable of defamation, he could not prove same.

“From the above, I hold that the plaintiff is a blackmailer who uses blackmail to extort money from his opponents and people he does not like....What the plaintiff is doing is not investigative journalism but investigative terrorism,” the presiding judge ruled, and further awarded cost of GH¢50,000 against Anas.

Unhappy with the ruling, the one-time GJA Journalist of the Year filed an application at the Supreme Court to quash the judgment of the High Court.

The investigative journalist explained that the grounds for the application were based on "absence of jurisdiction" by the sitting judge and the "apparent or real likelihood of bias and impartiality on the part of the judge".

End of the Road?

However, on Wednesday, February 28th, 2024, Peace FM's correspondent, Philipa Atanga who was present in the courtroom, reports that by a 3-2 majority decision, the apex court dismissed Anas's application.

Chief Justice, Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, Mariama Owusu JSC and Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu JSC ruled for the defendant, with the dissenting justices being His Lordships Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu and Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi JSC.