Thieves must cough up loot – Kofi Bentil defends state use of ‘settlement’ in Ato Essien case - www.asempanews.com

Bentil holds that Section 35 of the Courts Act that deals with settlement between the state and accused persons was important to the extent that it allowed for the state to retrieve embezzled funds.

He argued on the December 3 edition of Joy FM’s Newsfile programme that there are instances that people steal monies and go to jail only to return and enjoy their loot.

“There is good reason in philosophy, in what is proper and practical for us to have a Section 35, because there are people who actually steal state money and want to go to jail for five, even ten years, come back and enjoy it,” he submitted.

He disagreed with the High Court judge sitting on the Ato Essien case when the judge averred on December 1 that Section 35 seemingly encouraged crime relative to persons engaged in financial crimes finding a route to keep some of their loot.

“Yes I disagree with him because Section 35 is a very good provision for those of us who are in policy, who look at what goes on in this country, and the millions that we lose and the money we don’t recover

“So indeed the argument is counterproductive against what was said that because of (section) 35 people are going to steal, it is without 35 that people steal

The state relied on Section 35 of the Courts Act but the judge in comments before agreeing to adjourn the reading of his judgment said the route the state had resorted to seems to one that may be making crimes attractive.