The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by a teacher in the Northern Region, Eric Asante to get a GH¢7 million compensation from the government.
He was seeking the compensation for being wrongfully jailed for 15 years for allegedly defiling a 14-year old student.
[contextly_sidebar id=”V5AicobERndNjg3MPnDX26CTNtA5DZ2R”]According to the court, the reasons attributed by the teacher to seek the compensation could not hold as he failed to prove them.
Eric Asante claimed that his wrongful incarceration caused him mental damages, psychological and emotional trauma and investment losses.
The seven-member panel also added that viewing the teacher physically; there was nothing which showed that he had gone through any mental torture in prison.
They, however, granted him a GH¢ 45,000.00 compensation for the curtailment of his freedoms and ordered that his salary arrears for the last 13 year be paid him.
Eric Asante was acquitted and discharged by the Supreme Court in January 2017, after a DNA test carried out on the baby believed to have come about as a result of the supposed rape, proved that he was not the biological father.
He was initially found guilty on September 5, 2005, and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour by the Tamale High Court, for defiling one Rubamatu Mohammed.
Mr Asante, who had always maintained his innocence, filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal on October 6, 2006, but it was dismissed.
He then proceeded to the Supreme Court in 2012, where the court ordered a DNA test to be conducted on the baby and later discharged and acquitted after serving two-thirds of his jail term.
Meanwhile the lawyer for the teacher, Victor Kwesi Opeku has expressed disappointment over the decision.
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By: Fred Tettey Djabanor/citinewsroom.com/Ghana