[1973]DLCA2267 • May 18, 1973 • Court of Appeal
REPUBLIC vs. MAIKANKAN AND OTHERS
Ten accused persons were charged on 516 counts involving offences such as defrauding by false pretences, uttering forged documents, and forgery, allegedly committed between January and December 1969. During trial, the prosecution sought to tender a document not listed in the summary of evidence, leading to objections by defence counsel on grounds of procedural fairness and statutory compliance.
read moreThe accused persons, ten of them, had been charged on 516 counts. The offences, alleged to have been committed between January and December 1969, range from defrauding by false pretences and uttering forged documents to forgery of documents. At the trial the prosecution sought to tender in evidence a document. Mr. Peter Swaniker, one of the defence counsel, objected to the document being tendered in evidence. The ground for the objection was that it had not been stated in the summary of evidence of that witness that he would tender any document in evidence. Counsel contended that the object of an accused person being supplied with the summary of evidence was to enable him or his counsel to know in advance what the witness was going to do so as to avoid a surprise. Mr. Gyeke-Dako, the Director of Public Prosecutions and prosecuting counsel, argued that all that the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30), required was that a summary of the witness’s evidence should be made and a .....