Assault case on journalist: Court gives prosecution one month to file documents
The court hearing the case in which a 55-year-old sympathiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is standing trial for allegedly assaulting a JoyNews journalist has given the prosecution one month to file all necessary documents to rely on for the trial.
This comes after the prosecution failed to comply with earlier orders of the court to file the documents in July.
The case has been adjourned to October 16, 2025.
Latif Iddrisu was assigned to cover the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman’s arrest at the headquarters of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in May this year when the accused, Theophilus Kpakpo Thompson, allegedly threatened him that, “Today is your last day, we know where you are coming from and we know what we can do”.
Thompson is facing two counts of assault and threat of death at the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Kwabena Kodua Obiri-Yeboah.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been granted bail.
Prosecution’s facts
Narrating the facts of the case, Chief Inspector Olivia Ofori-Atta said on May 27 this year, the EOCO arrested Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, at their office in Accra.
Some supporters of the NPP, she said, massed up in front of the EOCO to protest the arrest of Chairman Wontumi.
On the same day, at about 7 p.m., C/Insp Ofori-Atta said the journalist, who is the complainant in the case, was on duty at the scene to do a live broadcast on the 7 p.m. news on JoyNews.
“In the process, some of the supporters of the NPP claimed that the complainant was making a false broadcast.
“Based on that, some of the supporters, including the accused person, rushed at him and hit him on his head and ribs with their hands. Some of them also hit the complainant with stones and spat on him,” the prosecutor said.
Again, she said the accused person and his accomplices, who remain at large, threatened the complainant with words, to wit: “Today is your last day, we know where you are coming from and we know what we can do”.
The complainant, she said, reported the matter to the Police and he was issued with a Police Medical Report Form to attend the hospital.
“The Medical Report submitted confirmed that the complainant was indeed assaulted.
“A video footage of the incident was obtained and reviewed, which identified the accused person, and others at large, as the persons who assaulted and threatened the complainant,” the prosecutor said.
On June 7, 2025, acting on intelligence, the Police arrested the accused person at James Town, Accra.
According to the prosecution, the accused person, in his statement, admitted being present at the scene and also hitting the complainant.
