Ali-Gabass jailed 25 years for defilement

Dr Sulley Ali-Gabass, the Sekondi-based medical practitioner who was charged for sodomising a 16-year-old senior high school student.has been jailed 25-years by an Accra Circuit Court.

He was found guilty and convicted on a charge of defilement by the court on Monday.

According to Graphic Online’s reporter, Seth J. Bokpe, who was in the court presided over by Rita Agyeman Budu, Ali-Gabass was however acquitted and discharged on a second charge of having unnatural canal knowledge of the victim.

Ali-Gabass, a senior medical doctor at the Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi, was charged with two-counts of having unnatural carnal knowledge of the victim and defilement. He denied the charges.

The trial was held in camera. In all, five witnesses, including the victim, Mr Manasseh Azure, a journalist who first broke the story that led to the arrest and prosecution of Ali-Gabass, and the victim’s father, testified.

The other witnesses were the police investigator, Sergeant Osei Asiedu, and Dr Nii Aryee, a surgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, who diagnosed the victim with fistula and anal rectal abscess after a surgical operation.

The young victim, whose health condition is deteriorating, has been diagnosed as being HIV positive.

During trial, lead counsel for Ali-Gabass, Mr John Benson, submitted a medical report from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to prove that his client was not HIV positive.

Bokpe reported that pronouncing the sentence, the court said it was meant to be a deterrent for people who take advantage of young people whether male or female especially at a time that there was an increase in moral decadence in Ghana.

According to our reporter, when before pronouncing sentence the court asked counsel for Ali-Gabass, whether there was any plea for mitigation, counsel said he was a family man with two kids, a wife and was also a medical doctor.

Counsel pleaded with the court to take into consideration the UN Charter that protects the rights of Lesbians and Gay Bi-sexual Transgender (LGBT) people as well as the recent ruling of the US Supreme Court, that paved the way for the recognition of gay marriages in all states in the United States.

Facts

According to the facts of the case, the victim is a student residing at Kasoa, while Ali-Gabass is a medical practitioner at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital.

In September 2013, the victim encountered Ali-Gabass on Facebook and they became friends.

They exchanged ideas online and communicated by phone for a while until October 2013 when Ali-Gabass arranged and met the victim at the Kasoa New Market area where he forcibly had anal sex with the victim in his car, the prosecution said.

It said about 7 p.m. on December 28, 2013, the two met again at the same venue where Ali-Gabass allegedly had anal sex with the victim, after which he offered the boy a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone and GH¢20.

After the second sexual act, it said the victim became ill and Ali-Gabass allegedly prescribed paracetamol tablets for him.

According to the prosecution, the act was repeated at the same venue in February 2014.

It said in March and April 2014, Ali-Gabass lured the victim to his house at Alajo in Accra where he allegedly had another bout of anal sex with him.

It said after the fifth incident, the victim started experiencing excruciating pains and complained to Ali-Gabass to give him money to attend hospital, but he refused.

“Rather, the accused person threatened the victim persistently via phone calls and managed to put fear in him from disclosing his ordeal,” the prosecution further claimed.

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Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh