PERCIVIAL JUNIOR CURT v. REPUBLIC

OFOE, J.A:

The Accra High Court that convicted the appellant, amongst others was treated to evidence of how the accused persons were accosted by the national security operatives, in this case the Ghana Navy, the Police and the security operatives of the Narcotic Control Board. The operatives who had had security information from their foreign partners about a semi submarine with illicit drugs entering the Ghanaian Territorial waters were alert waiting for the information to play out. It did happen and on the early morning of the 19th November 2013 about 7.30am, the operatives spotted the vessel M.V Atiyah within our waters. The Captain of the vessel was signalled to stop. Led by a Sub-Lieutenant Naval Officer, some of the operatives got unto the vessel and confronted the Captain who initially denied he had any goods on board the vessel but eventually admitted they had cocaine in the hatch of the vessel. A search was mounted which disclosed there were in all 414 slabs of the illicit drugs. All the inmates of the vessel were arrested and placed before court after conclusion of investigations. In the course of investigations, it was disclosed by the accused persons how a boat approached their vessel Atiyah and the cocaine was loaded from that boat into their vessel. The case of the prosecution was that all the accused persons knew they were loading drugs. Undisputed on the facts was the evidence that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th accused persons did the off loading with the appellant observing.

The 2nd and 3rd accused persons pleaded guilty whilst the other three i.e. the 1st accused (now appellant), fourth and fifth had their plea of guilty with explanation recorded as not guilty in view of their explanation. After trial they were also convicted. The 2nd and 3rd who pleaded guilty were sentenced to 20 and 15 years IHL respectively. In respect of these other three the trial judge eventually convicted them of the offences of Conspiracy, in count one, importation of Narcotic Drugs without lawful authority in count two and possession of Narcotic Drug without lawful authority in count three.

It is the 1st accused person who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment who is on appeal before us questioning both his conviction and sentence. He has the following grounds of appeal filed on the 13th of April 2017.

“a. Judgment is not supported by the evidence on record.

b. His Lordship should have thoroughly considered the repentant state of mind and heart of the appellan