By Stephen Kwabena Effah
June 12, 2013 
Justin Katinan
Kone, Spokesman for former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, has described
attempts by the Ivorian Government to have him extradited to that country to
face robbery charges as politically motivated.
He told a Magistrates’
Court in Accra yesterday that there was no justification whatsoever in the
attempts to extradite him to Ivory Coast where he was wanted for prosecution on
20 counts of conspiracy and armed robbery.
“I did not commit
any of these offences. I think that the case is a political case,” he told the
court when he mounted the witness box to give evidence in the ongoing
extradition proceedings against him.
Per extradition
documents issued by the Ivorian authorities to their Ghanaian counterpart, Mr.
Kone, was said to have conspired with some people and led troops to rob banks in
Abidjan on April 19 and April 20, 2011.
However, Mr. Kone,
who is in Ghana on a refugee status, yesterday told the Magistrates Court
hearing the extradition proceedings that he was in Ghana at the time that the
alleged robbery was said to have taken place.
“I left my home 10
days before our president (Gbagbo) was overthrown...From March 27, 2011 to
today, I have never put any foot in my office in Abidjan. It is therefore not
possible to have led our troops to rob any bank,” he said in his evidence to
the court yesterday.
Led in evidence by
his counsel, Patrick Sogbodjor, Mr.Kone who is a lawyer, told the court that he
had since April 2011 been defending the interest of former Ivorian President
Laurent Gbagbo anywhere the issue of the
2010 Ivorian crisis came up.
That, he
explained, has not been favourable to the Alassane Ouattara administration,
saying “I think that the Ivorian authorities dislike it so they want to make me
quiet”.
He said that
Mr.Ouattara on April 29, 2011 went on a national television that he (Kone) had
been arrested in Cameroun when that was not the case, “So he has decided to put
pressure on Ghana authorities to arrest me”
Mr. Kone who was
arrested on August 24, 2012 by Ghana’s security agencies under a warrant, is wanted
for economic crimes he was alleged to have committed during the three months of
crisis that followed Mr. Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power to his rival,
Alassane Ouattara in December 2010.
He had since been
fighting his extradition before the Magistrate Court presided over by Mr.
Aboagye Tandoh.
To avoid
extradition, Mr. Kone is expected to lead evidence to establish that there is
no extradition treaty between Ghana and Ivory Coast as well as evidence that
the charges on which he is being sought for is politically motivated.
Mr. Kone who was
the former Budget Minister under the Gbagbo administration, told the court that
he arrived in Ghana on April 13, 2011 by a fishing boat and that he had been
staying in Accra for the past two years.
He said that
during the crisis, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy directed the French
Bank, SG-BCI which controlled more than 60 per cent of the Ivorian banking
industry, to cease operation.
He said it became
a major concern to him as a Budget Minister at the time, noting that more than
150,000 public servants had their accounts with the bank.
As a result, he
said President Gbagbo decreed that the bank be naturalised, noting that as the
Budget minister, it was his responsibility to ensure that the president’s
decree was carried through.
He said that after
the bank was naturalised, they applied to an Ivorian Court which issued an
order for the banks to be reopened in order for wages of those public servants
to be paid.
Mr. Kone said
consequent to the court order, the bank was reopened in the presence of prosecutors
and the police but he was not present
when that was done.
He said following
the closure of the bank, the Labour Union in Ivory Coast took the bank to court
and managed to win 20 billion CFA in damages against the bank for illegal
closure.
At yesterday’s
hearing, he tendered in evidence several documents, including his refugee
status card, the Ivorian Court order granting the opening of the bank, and the
order awarding damages against the bank, to buttress his case.
Hearing of the
case continues this morning.
Mr. Kone has since
September 25, 2012 been on a GH¢50, 000-bail with two sureties. He was
re-arrested on September 28, 2012 on a fresh warrant issued by the Ivorian
authorities and put before the Accra Community Magistrates Court on October 1,
2012 on murder charges but the court on October 24, 2012 discharged him
This was after
prosecutors failed to give legal grounds for charging Katinan under Ghanaian
laws when the alleged murder was committed outside Ghana.
The court held
that INTERPOL Abidjan can at best request for the extradition of Katinan to
face trial in Ivory Coast, noting that “that (extradition proceedings) is not before
me.”
.
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