A witness for the Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI), Marcel Aboagye, in its ongoing defamation suit against investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni and three others has described them as deceitful, malicious, and mischievous.
The Lighthouse Chapel International sued Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Media Foundation for West Africa, its Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah and co-editor, Edwin Appiah on December 10, 2021, for what the church considers unjustified and illegal attacks against it, and its founder Bishop Dag Heward-Mills for the publication of 3 articles titled “Darkness in a Lighthouse”.
The witness told the General Jurisdiction 13 of the High Court presided over by Justice Joseph Adu-Owusu Agyemang, on March 8, that the defendants are being deceitful in mounting a defence that portions of the articles are simply a reproduction of contents of suits filed by some former pastors of LCI against the church and so they cannot be held liable for simply publishing matters pending in court.
Six former pastors of Lighthouse Chapel International in December 2021 sued the church and demanded a whopping $12 Million as a settlement from the church after they left.
The witness said in an earlier suit filed by LCI against the defendants in which the defendants were convicted for contempt of court the defendants submitted that these same articles were not connected to these suits.
The witness under cross-examination also testified that the defendants wrote to LCI about complaints from the aggrieved former pastors of the church before publishing the articles but said that the defendants themselves had not presented that letter to the court because they knew that several portions of the publications are not connected to the letter.
He further explained that the portion of the publication talking about over 100 Bishops and 2500 Pastors suffering the alleged fate of these six former Pastors is not in that letter.
The witness added that the defendants in publishing the articles also maliciously omitted the date of the publication of a Handbook which forms the basis of the claims of the former pastors, since the defendants knew that the date of publication nullifies the claims being made by the former pastors.
The case has been adjourned to Monday, April 8.
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