Days after an Accra High Court acquitted and discharged Prophet Kofi Yirenkyi, popularly known as Jesus One Touch, in an incestuous defilement case for which he was serving a ten-year jail term, civil society groups are joining forces to appeal the case and get him to return to the dungeon.
Prophet Kofi Yirenkyi (Jesus one Touch)
Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), a research and advocacy organization that protects human rights in Ghana, and Child’s Rights International (CRI), an organisation that protects the rights of children, have both expressed shock at the acquittal and discharge of Jesus One Touch, the founder and General Overseer of Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry.
The High Court on Friday freed Jesus One Touch after he had been previously found guilty of having multiple sexual bouts with his ten-year-old biological daughter and slapped with the ten-year jail term.
Nana Oye Lithur, Executive Director of HRAC, has asked the Minister of Justice and Attorney General to appeal the case while Bright Appiah, Executive Director of CRI, has called on advocacy groups to support the campaign by Nana Oye Lithur to appeal Friday’s ruling.
“We are disappointed with the judgement… we are also very disappointed with the way the Attorney General’s office and the Attorney General and the State Attorneys have handled this case because they were not in court today.
“The case was called, they were not in court and the case was stood down and still they did not appear in court…so we have to look at how the Attorney General’s Department and the State Attorney on this case has handled it and whether or not this has contributed to the judgment we have today,” Nana Oye told Joy news hours after the ruling last Friday.
She further complained about the apparent lackadaisical approach with which the case had been handled and expressed suspicion that it could have contributed to the reasons for which the prophet was freed.
When the case was called in court last Friday, it was stood down for close to 30 minutes because the prosecutor was not present and indeed the prosecutor never showed up throughout the ruling.
The judge, Justice Emmanuel K. Dzakpasu, observed that there were “huge doubts” created in the prosecution’s case made against the prophet, upon which he was convicted.
Justice Dzakpasu explained that it was insufficient for the Accra Circuit Court to consider only the evidence of the victim to put the man of God in jail.
He added that it was obvious that the evidence of the victim’s mother, her aunty and investigator were based on the narration of the victim and therefore was not enough grounds for conviction.
Two doctors who conducted two separate examinations on the victim at different times also came up with conflicting views on what might have broken her hymen.
While Dr. Bedford Simon Sarfo, a gynaecologist from Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, reported that the victim’s vulva was normal and it was the hymen which was torn and that it could result 99 percent from sexual intercourse, an examination by Dr. Samuel Amu Mensah, a gynaecologist at the Police Hospital, refuted the claim that the hymen broke through sexual intercourse since all structures of the vagina, with the exception of the hymen, were intact.
He argued that a hymen could be broken accidentally when playing, or by mothers who inserted things into the vagina of their children.
Justice Dzakpasu noted that it was the responsibility of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt but in this case, the huge doubt inured to the benefit of the accused since the prosecution was unable to establish that what might have caused the hymen to tear was as a result of sexual intercourse.
But after the ruling, the CRI Executive Director, Bright Appiah, insisted the overturning of the prophet’s sentence left much to be desired as far as the victim was concerned.
“The most important thing is not the criminal aspect of it because in that case, we would be talking about certain technicalities left for the lawyers.
But the important thing is to look at what will be in the best interest of the child,” the children’s rights advocate noted and said the child’s welfare should be the State’s priority; therefore Nana Oye Lithur’s move must be endorsed.
Source: News One
