The Supreme Court (SC) by a 4:1 majority decision, has quashed the warrant arrest issued against social media commentator, Kevin Taylor by the Accra High Court on January 16, 2020. The court held that the High Court did not follow due process prior to issuing the arrest warrant.
The Commercial Division of the High Court then presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour issued the warrant for the arrest of Kevin Taylor to answer to the question of why he should not be committed to prison for contemptuous statements which were totally a fabrication.
The High Court, which was presided over by then High Court Judge, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, said Kevin Taylor made a video on social media which it found extremely scandalous and contemptuous when Justice Kyei Baffour was then presiding over the case involving a former Board Chairman of the National Communication Authority, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie and four others.
Kevin Taylor sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to quash the said warrant because the High Court lacked jurisdiction to issue the warrant without first giving him an opportunity to respond to the charges. His lawyer Peter Okudzeto submitted that the order for the arrest was made in breach of Kevin Taylor’s right to be heard before any order was made.
The lawyer argued further that the arrest order clearly undermined the High Court’s own obligation to protect his fundamental human right to liberty.
He said in all instances in which the courts are minded to summon persons to appear before them to show cause why they should not be convicted for contempt, appearing before the court to answer the contempt charges is not preceded by an order for the arrest of the suspected contemnor who has not indicated their intention to refuse to show up in court voluntarily to answer to the charge.
Lawyer Okudzeto told the court that the application was filed outside the statutory period specified by Rule 62 of the amended Supreme Court Rules which states that any application to invoke the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court ought to be filed within 90 days because Kevin Taylor’s attention was brought to the arrest warrant sometime in May this year.
