Court to rule on Ataa Ayi accomplice's appeal on June 5
Agyekum, a mechanic, has already spent over 20 years in prison following his 2002 conviction for conspiracy to commit robbery.
On April 28, his lawyer, Bernard Kwabena Shaw, urged the court to overturn the sentence. He argued that Agyekum was convicted without direct evidence and without legal representation at the time.
Shaw believes his client was only implicated because some of the motorcycles used by Ataa Ayi’s gang were serviced at his workshop.
“The link to Ataa Ayi was that most of the bikes used by the robbers were repaired in his workshop. So when the swoop was done on Ataa Ayi, his name came up on their phones. That was all it took to convict him alongside the rest,” Shaw told journalists.
The case reached Shaw after the former Governor of Nsawam Prison brought it to his attention. It has since taken eight years of appeals to get to this point.
Ataa Ayi, whose real name is Raymond Aryee Aryeetey, led a reign of terror in the early 2000s, committing high-profile robberies across Ghana. He was eventually arrested in 2005 and sentenced to a total of 90 years in prison.
As the judgment day nears, all eyes are on the Appeal Court to determine whether Agyekum’s long sentence will stand or be overturned.
