[2001]DLHC1255 • December 10, 2001 • High Court
REPUBLIC vs. SELORMEY
Victor Selormey, former Deputy Minister of Finance, was charged with six counts including fraud by false pretences, conspiracy to cause financial loss to the State, and causing financial loss to the State. He allegedly authorized payments totaling $1,297,500 to Dr Frederick Owusu Boadu via Ecobank, falsely representing that consultancy services had been provided under the court computerisation project, which was untrue as the services were performed by another company, VSM International. No contract existed between LEEBDA (Dr Boadu's company) and the Ministry of Finance or Justice for these services, and the payments were not properly authorized or documented.
read moreJUDGEMENT Baddoo JA. The accused person, Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance, has been charged with two counts of fraud by false pretences, two counts of conspiracy to cause financial loss to the State and two counts of causing financial loss to the state. He has pleaded not guilty to all the six counts. In all criminal proceedings in this Republic it is the responsibility and the duty of the prosecution to prove the charges against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt. But what is reasonable doubt? Several definitions have been given by eminent jurists. But I prefer to quote the definition given by Chief Justice Shaw in 1850, during the trial of Prof Webster of Harvard University, for the murder of Dr Parkman in Commonwealth v Webster, 59 Mass (5 Cush) 295 at 320 (1850). He said: “It is the condition of mind which exists, when the jurors cannot say that they feel an abiding conviction, a moral certainty of the truth of the charge. For it is not suf.....