AIRBUS SCANDAL: Special Prosecutor Gives Reasons for Triggering Samuel Mahama’s Interpol Arrest Warrant

The office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has defended its decision to trigger an Interpol Arrest warrant for Samuel Adam Foster aka Adam Mahama in connection to the Airbus Bribery SE Scandal.

According to the OSP, it has unearthed crimes of impersonation and forgeries in the ongoing investigations relating to the said scandal, pushing it to alert the Interpol.

On July 10, Interpol issued an international red notice for Samuel Mahama and three others over their alleged involvement in the Airbus Bribery Scandal.

Mr Samuel Mahama, has been accused of accepting bribe to influence a public officer and acting in collaboration with a public officer for the public officer’s private gain.

Also declared wanted are Sarah Furneaux, Sarah Leanne Davis, and Philip Sean Middlemiss.

However, some critics described the alert from Interpol as a ‘hoax’, saying the Akufo-Addo government was scheming to unlawfully apprehend Samuel Mahama, in a political witch hunt.

For instance, the Communications Officer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) described the warrant issued by Interpol as 'fabricated'.

According to Sammy Gyamfi, the supposed ‘arrest warrant’ cannot be found on Interpol’s website, raising suspicions about its validity.

But, in a statement to the press dated July 23, 2020, the Special Prosecutor (SP), Mr Martin Amidu, said the arrest warrant from Interpol was not fake. He added that his office built a good case meriting the Interpol red notices.

“The investigation into the Airbus SE bribery case in Ghana has been so thorough that it has even unearthed the suspected commission of other related crimes of impersonation as graduates of the University of Ghana, a civil servant, and forgeries in the application for the acquisition of a Ghanaian passport connect to this bribery case”.

“The unethical and touting lawyers ought to know better that the guarantors of the Ghanaian passport are prima facie abettors of the impersonation and forgeries, as much as the guarantor who claimed falsely to be a civil servant. The passport has relevance to documents employed in facilitating the Airbus SE (Ghana) bribery”, the statement said.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor went further  to question the credibility of some "young lawyers" after they doubted the authenticity of the Interpol Red Notice.

"The SP also learnt later and read online that a bunch of young, inexperienced, and unethical lawyers were referring to the Red Notices as fake while at the same time heaping insults and attributing unwarranted motives to the person and character of the SP for doing his work as the Special Prosecutor to fight provable corruption," the release said.

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"The SP is well known in this country and amongst the community of ethical lawyers and the senior judiciary as a person who had practiced the law ethically for upwards of forty years. Some of the unethical lawyers who were assaulting the person and character of the SP on the air waves are lawyers who are in their twenties and early thirties: they have not even yet cut their teeth at the Ghana Bar. The SP refused to be drawn into the affray of turning law into politics as is the forte of those unethical and inexperienced lawyers with no or very limited distinguished court room practice vindicating their standing as lawyers in the Ghana Law Reports". it added

The Office of the Special Prosecutor also took the opportunity to “assure all Ghanaians that it cannot and will not be an instrument of any political party in its fight against corruption” while adding that crime will always remain a crime no matter whose ox is gored.

“It is better not to try to look into the eyes of the snake as the supporters of the four fugitives wanted for prosecution have made it their past time to do”, the statement said.

Read full statement below