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“The case was not tampered with, the court process was allowed to continue to its conclusion. Those of us who listened to the comments, we told them their utterances were wrong and so they should go and apologise and so made them apologise until the sentencing came.

“And in the judicial process, there is something called pardon or clemency; even in recent times, they have pardoned a lot of people.

“So are they saying that if someone commits an offence and they are being taken away and they run to you to apologise on their behalf, as a mother will you throw them away?

Or that when you go and apologise on their behalf it means you endorse what they had done? no. If your child smashes the mirror of somebody’s car and you go and apologise does it mean you support what your child did? Mahama could have covered them but he didn’t do so, he allowed the law to work; what do we see today?”

One of the three persons convicted for contemptuous comments against some judges but later but pardoned, says the conviction has reformed him.

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Alistair Nelson told MultiTV’s PM Express that although at the time he taught the punishment was harsh, he is convinced he has become better for it.

“Sometimes punishment is good. Sometimes for what you do, and you don’t know you have gone overboard, somebody needs to prick you to bring your mind about what you are doing,” he told the host of PM Express, Kojo Yankson on Wednesday evening.

He said since returning from a brief stay in prison, it has helped him to become more measured in his comments on the radio.

Mr Nelson, together with Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase, were jailed on July 27, 2016 for threatening to kill some judges whose judgements, according to them, were bad.

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The threat was made on a political talk show on Accra-based Montie FM.

They also threatened to rape the Chief Justice then, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, on the same show.

Godwin Ako-Gun was recently elected Deputy Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

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Despite a three-month jail sentence handed them by the Supreme Court, the NDC supporters were set free by then President, John Mahama, on August 22, 2016, after they had served a little over three weeks in jail.

Three legal practitioners Nana Asante Bediatuo, Elipklim Agbemeva; and Alfred Yeboah subsequently headed to the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the pardon granted them is null and void.

They maintain that the then President did not have the power to grant pardons in criminal contempt matters.

However, delivering the decision of the Supreme Court panel, Justice Adinyira said the President’s powers to grant pardons covers criminal contempt.

She added that this cannot be questioned by the court.

The court ‘s decision was a majority 5-2 decision comprising Justices Adinyira, Baffour Bonnie, Appau, Pwamang, Benin. Justices Anin Yeboah and Dotse disagreed with the majority decision.

Bad experience

Commenting on the events following his conviction Alistair Nelson said the incident cost him some cherished and revered friends.

“Those who were sitting in their homes, who have not sent us to speak, the owners of the station, today my relationship is broken with all of them,” he said.

“It is very difficult to even pick a phone and call any of them, they wouldn’t respond because they have tagged us the bad boy[s] in the system. It has been a very bad experience,” he added.

The three could end up in jail to serve the remainder of their term if the Supreme Court grants the reliefs being sought by the petitioners.

The seven-member panel presided over by Justice Sophia Adinyira will determine the constitutionality of the pardon granted by former President John Mahama to three National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists who threatened Supreme Court justices on radio and later came to be known as the Montie Three.

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The activists – Mr Alistair Nelson, Mr Godwin Ako Gunn and Mr Salifu Masse – were later convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment for contempt of court.

The plaintiffs are, Nana Asante Bediatuo; Elipklim Agbemeva; and Alfred Yeboah represented by lawyers Mr Bright Obeng Manu; Mr Akoto Ampaw; and Dr Ernest Owusu Dapaah.

To the Plaintiffs, the former President could not arrogate unto himself powers exclusively within the bosom of the Judiciary per the 1992 Constitution.

They have pleaded with the apex court to declare the pardon null and void.

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They claim the Presidential Pardon granted the three was unconstitutional as the former President purportedly exploited the exercise of the prerogative of mercy.

They further claim that in this particular case, it was tantamount to an exercise of judicial functions in a matter not within the scope of Article 72 (1) and undermines the principles of separation of powers and independence of the judiciary.

They pray that should the court find the case meritorious the Montie three should be sent back to jail to finish their jail terms.

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The three were convicted on July 27, 2016, but were granted Presidential Pardon in August 2016, after serving a little over three weeks in jail.

Other members of the panel are Justices Jones Dotse, Anim Yeboah, A. A. Benin, Yaw Appau, Gabriel Pwamang and Baffoe Bonnie.

“Normally, when natural justice has been denied, then there is denial of justice, but there was no denial of natural justice,” she said during her vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, June 16.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase aka Mugabe were jailed by the Supreme Court panel chaired by Justice Sophia Akuffo at that time for threatening to kill judges as well as scandalising and bringing the name of the bench into disrepute.

They had made the threatening comments against the Chief Justice and some members of the bench in connection with a ruling by the same court ordering the Electoral Commission to submit a list of voters which registered with NHIS cards.

During her vetting, Bodi MP Sampson Ahi said: “Our judges became the prosecutors and became judges in the same matter and at the end of the day handed down convictions to them [Montie 3]…”

He therefore requested for “codified rules as to who can do what when it comes to contempt so that the rule of natural justice is not breached”.

Explaining the matter, Justice Akuffo said the judiciary relies on the office of the Attorney General to prosecute in that type of contempt but “you will recall in the case you mentioned that that did not happen weeks after the contempt had been committed, so it was an exceptional circumstance but fully backed by the law that governs contempt”.

She continued that in “natural justice, invariably, that person is given the opportunity to purge their contempt but in the case of the Montie 3 we did not give them that opportunity but they did get the opportunity to put up a case if they wanted to”, adding: “They were represented by a whole bevvy of high-powered lawyers and they in the end decided to plead guilty. When a person pleads guilty, you proceed to sentence. So it is [a] normal process and [they] were not denied justice at all…”

Listen to Justice Sophia Akuffo