The High Court will on Monday, January 15, 2018, rule on whether or not to grant bail to the Lebanese national who has been accused of allegedly raping his 19-year-old house help.
Haddad Rabih has been on remand since December 6, 2017, after the Accra Central District Court, presided over by Ms Arit Nsemoh, denied a bail application by his lawyers on the basis that it had no jurisdiction to grant him bail.
Adjournment
The hearing of the bail application was expected on Monday, January 8, 2018, at the court, presided over by Mr Justice Kofi Dorgu, but the court adjourned the hearing after a former A-G, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, who held brief for the house help, told the court that she had been reliably informed that the state attorney fighting the bail application was sick.
Counsel for the accused, Mr Ralph Opoku Adusei, prayed the court to hear the bail application in the absence of the state attorney.
According to him, the presence of the former A-G showed that the supposed victim had adequate representation to enable the hearing of the bail application.
His client, he said, was entitled to bail because the charge of rape levelled against him did not support the facts of the case.
Facts
Per the facts, as presented by the prosecutor, Superintendent of Police Mr Kweku Bempah, the 19-year-old house help, was employed by Haddad and his wife in November 2017, and since then, Haddad had been pestering her for sex.
He said on November 30, 2017, Haddad lured the house help into one of the bedrooms upstairs and “forcibly had sexual intercourse with her when his wife and other occupants of the house had gone out.”
Supt Bempah said on December 2, 2017, Haddad requested the house help to prepare coffee for him and when she went to the kitchen to do so, Haddad went to her and demanded to have sex with her. She resisted and that infuriated Haddad, who slapped her and hit her on the neck.
“He then dragged her into the master bedroom, stripped her naked and forcibly had sex with her on the bed,” he said.
Supt Bempah said the house help reported her ordeal to a co-worker, who also gave the information out to the police.
The matter, he said, was subsequently reported to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), leading to Haddad’s arrest.
