The High Court has cleared and released James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North, who was accused of a crime related to claims of dual citizenship.
A lengthy judicial struggle over allegations that Quayson was a Canadian citizen when he filed to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections, an act the prosecution said violated the Ghanaian Constitution, came to a close on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, when the ruling was issued.
Quayson had insisted that he had relinquished his Canadian citizenship before submitting his nomination, and he had continuously disputed the accusations.
After the court’s judgment, he spoke and said he was relieved.
After Quayson’s legal team submitted a no-case-to-answer, he was acquitted. The court concluded that the prosecution had not established the necessary components of the accused offenses.
Quayson did not make any misleading statements on his 2020 nomination documents, the judge decided.
The court determined that he had already applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship at the time he stated that he owed allegiance to Ghana alone, proving that he had no malice in his heart.
The reliability of the evidence presented was further undermined by the court’s identification of discrepancies in the prosecution witnesses’ statutory declarations and passport summary sheet.
The judge came to the conclusion that there was no justification for calling Quayson to present his defense.
Quayson was charged with five offenses: perjury, false declaration for office, deliberately making a false statutory declaration, and forging a passport or travel certificate.
The prosecution claimed that by claiming that he had no allegiance to another nation, he had misled the Electoral Commission and the Passport Office.
The High Court’s decision has cleared the legal haze surrounding Quayson’s parliamentary seat, enabling him to carry on serving as a lawmaker without any more legal challenges.
Source: newsthemegh.com