Dr. Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has urgently applied to the Court of Appeal for a stay of the judgement that cleared and dismissed Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, the former CEO of the Microfinance and Small Loans Center (MASLOC), while the Supreme Court considers an appeal.
Just hours after the Court of Appeal unanimously reversed Attionu’s conviction and 10-year prison sentence, clearing her of all charges, the application was submitted on Thursday, July 30.
The Attorney-General is requesting that the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal in Accra postpone its ruling until the Supreme Court rules on the state’s appeal.
Assistant State Attorney Andrew Owusu-Agyemang’s sworn affidavit supports the motion, which was submitted by Principal State Attorney Hilda W. Craig on behalf of the Attorney-General.
The document states that Attionu was initially charged with theft and causing financial loss to the state when he was hauled before the High Court in February 2019. She departed Ghana for the United States during the trial, so the court had to proceed without her.
The High Court found her guilty in absentia on April 16, 2024, and sentenced her to ten years in prison with hard work.
According to the affidavit, Attionu appealed the conviction in February 2026 when she was still not under Ghanaian jurisdiction.
Around the same time, the Attorney-General’s Office started the extradition process, which resulted in her return from the US in June 2026 when her extradition was granted by a federal district court in Nevada. After then, she started serving her prison term.
On July 30, 2026, however, a three-person Court of Appeal panel made up of Justices Emmanuel Ankamah, Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe, and Samuel Obeng-Diawuo unanimously granted her appeal, overturned the convictions, and mandated her release and acquittal.
The trial court was chastised by the appellate court for failing to prove the prosecution’s case beyond a reasonable doubt and for losing sight of the fundamental precept that every accused person is assumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The Attorney-General has contested that ruling, claiming in the affidavit that the Court of Appeal’s ruling constituted a significant injustice due to what he terms “material errors of law and fact on the face of the record.”
The Republic has already sent a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court, according to the affidavit, which also asserts that the appeal presents significant and debatable issues with a genuine chance of victory.
The Attorney-General claims that if the acquittal is upheld until the Supreme Court makes a decision, failing to grant a stay of execution may make the anticipated appeal useless.
Therefore, the application requests that the Court of Appeal halt the implementation of its July 30 ruling while the Supreme Court makes its final decision about the appeal.
According to court records, the Director of the Ghana Prisons Service at Nsawam, Attionu at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, and the Registrar of the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division have all received notice of the motion.
The former CEO of MASLOC, Attionu, was first charged with 78 counts, including money laundering, conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial harm to the state, and procurement-related offences.
She left Ghana during her trial and was found guilty in absentia by the High Court in April 2024. However, the Court of Appeal unanimously overturned the convictions and ordered her to be released and acquitted.
The Republic is unhappy with the decision and is certain that the Supreme Court will reverse it, according to the Attorney-General.
Source: newsthemegh.com