BAIDEN AND ANOTHER V. THE REPUBLIC

COUSSEY J.

The application is for bail pending appeal. The applicants were convicted for perjury contrary to section 152 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30), on 14 June 1972 by me sitting at the High Court, Sekondi. The circumstances leading to their conviction were that Moses K. Baiden procured Kwame Essel and both agreed to fabricate evidence with the intent to pervert the cause of justice in Civil Suit No. 44/71 between John Lefred Ansah and Moses K. Baiden. It is worthy of note that if the applicants had succeeded in their fabrication, and if Moses K. Baiden had won in that civil case, he would have been entitled to a total sum of about ¢42,000.00 in damages. This amount would have been obtained by fraud on the court.

The High Court is vested with jurisdiction to grant bail. The exercise of the jurisdiction is governed by certain considerations which I shall refer to later. It is necessary to state that bail pending appeal is not granted as a matter of course. It is ma…