Mahama Autopsy Report Pops Up in Court

After weeks of controversy and confusion, the much talked about full autopsy report of the remains of the late Major Maxwell Adams Mahama has finally landed in court.

The submission of the report puts to rest the blame game between State prosecutors and Dr. Lawrence Edusei, a Pathologist at the 37 Military Hospital.

The two have over the weeks been embroiled in a circus of accusations and counter-accusations over who is delaying processes leading to the release of the report.

While the prosecution blamed the pathologist for not releasing the report, Dr. Edusei on the contrary, pointed accusations fingers at the prosecution.

He  insisted the police was making his work difficult by failing to provide all the adequate information required to facilitate his work.

He told the Accra Central District Court that police investigators had failed to meet him to furnish him with certain important information.

The Doctor, also a pathologist of the Korle-Bu Hospital chided the police for not making the crime scene pictures available to him.

According to the Doctor, he only saw the investigators of the case on October 18, 2017, a week after the court ordered him to release the autopsy report.

Dr. Adusei had been dragged before the court following the orders of the magistrate, Ebenezer Kweku Ansah.

He had been hauled before the court to explain why the autopsy report of Major Mahama had not been released five months after the murder of the solider.

The court had earlier ordered the Head of the Pathology Department of the 37 Military Hospital to release the report through the Director General CID before October 26, 2017.

The prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), George Amegah , said the pathologist should have written to the police if indeed he was facing any challenges with regard to the autopsy of Major Mahama.

“What prevented him from writing to the police for the information that he needed”, he said.

DSP Amegah among other things explained that apart from Major Mahama’s case, there were numerous murder cases in which the police had not received the autopsy reports.

Report Ready

However  at the hearing yesterday, the trial magistrate said the autopsy report has been filed on the case docket.

DSP Amegah for this reason noted that the report has been released because the prosecution had made its request based on the Coroners Act.

He urged the court to make an order directing the registrar of the court to make a copy of the report available to the prosecution, a request the judge granted.

Earlier, the prosecutor informed the court that the police were on the verge of rounding up everything for the Attorney-General to take over the trial for the committal process to start.

Charges

22 suspects, including a woman, have been charged over the gruesome murder of the 5 Battalion of Infantry Soldier on May 29, 2017.

They were provisionally charged with conspiracy to murder and murder. Major Mahama was the Commander of a military detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District of the Central Region to check the activities of illegal miners commonly known as galamseyers.

He was lynched by a mob which reportedly took him for an armed robber.

Source: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson/ thePublisher