The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has moved to prevent the immediate implementation of the Court of Appeal’s decision acquitting former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Chief Executive Officer Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, filing an urgent application for a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The application was filed on Thursday, July 30, just hours after a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Attionu’s convictions and 10-year prison sentence, ordering that she be acquitted and discharged on all charges.
The Attorney-General is asking the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division in Accra to suspend the operation of its judgment until the Supreme Court determines the Republic’s appeal.
The motion, filed by Principal State Attorney Hilda W. Craig, is supported by an affidavit sworn by Assistant State Attorney Andrew Owusu-Agyemang, who argues that the appellate court’s ruling raises significant legal issues that should be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
According to the affidavit, Attionu was first arraigned before the High Court in February 2019 on charges including stealing and causing financial loss to the state.
She later travelled to the United States during the trial, after which the High Court continued the proceedings in her absence.
On April 16, 2024, the High Court convicted her in absentia and sentenced her to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The affidavit states that Attionu appealed the conviction in February 2026, while she remained outside Ghana.
Around the same period, the Attorney-General’s Office initiated extradition proceedings, leading to her return to Ghana in June 2026 after a federal district court in Nevada approved her extradition.
She subsequently began serving her sentence at Nsawam Medium Security Prison.
However, the Court of Appeal on Thursday unanimously allowed her appeal, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and criticising the trial court for departing from the constitutional principle that every accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The Attorney-General has challenged that ruling, arguing that it resulted in a substantial miscarriage of justice due to what the state describes as material errors of law and fact.
The affidavit states that the Republic has already filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court and believes the appeal has substantial and arguable grounds with a real likelihood of success.
According to the Attorney-General, allowing the acquittal to remain in force before the Supreme Court determines the appeal could render the intended appeal ineffective.
The application therefore seeks to suspend the operation of the Court of Appeal’s July 30 judgment until the Supreme Court delivers a final decision.
Court documents show that notice of the application has been directed to the Registrar of the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division, Attionu at Nsawam Medium Security Prison, and the Director of the Ghana Prisons Service at Nsawam.
The case remains one of the country’s most significant public-sector corruption prosecutions, involving allegations of stealing, causing financial loss to the state, money laundering and procurement-related offences.
The Attorney-General has indicated that the Republic is confident the Supreme Court will overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision and restore the High Court’s conviction and sentence.
