THE REPUBLIC vs. MOHAMMED SHAFIC HIJAZI, WALID HIJAZI AND JIHAD HIJAZI

The background facts to this case are as follows. Three persons were initially arraigned before the trial High Court on two charges of "Failure to pay tax" and "Making false and misleading statement to an officer of the Ghana Revenue Authority" contrary to sections 80 and 81 of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016, (Act 915) respectively. Upon the application of the prosecution, the second accused person was discharged thus leaving the 1st and 3rd respondents who both pleaded not guilty to the charges. Not too long into the trial, they changed their lawyer and the new lawyer raised a preliminary objection to the power of the prosecutor (who was a lawyer employed by the Ghana Revenue Authority) to prosecute the respondents. In raising the objection, the lawyer for the respondents argued that Executive Instrument (E.1.) 5 under which the prosecutor purported to be operating had no legal basis hence the whole prosecution was null and void. Naturally the prosecutor objected to this positio...