Legal practitioner calls for Wontumi’s sentence to be slashed, argues several employees livelihood depend on him

Josephine Amuzu

15:48 – 20 July 2026

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A lawyer who intervened during Bernard Antwi-Boasiako’s sentencing says he appealed for a lighter punishment because Wontumi is a businessman whose many employees depend on him for their livelihoods.

A lawyer who was present in court during the sentencing of Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has explained why he appealed to the judge to consider reducing the sentence imposed on the businessman and politician.

Speaking to journalists after the ruling on Monday, July 20, the lawyer said his intervention was not based on any personal relationship with the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but was made in his capacity as a “friend of the court”.

For Mr Wontumi, in terms of the sentencing and it is not because it is Mr Wontumi, it is a very ordinary thing we all do in court. If you believe that, as a friend of the court, you need to put in a word or two for an accused person, we do it, he said.

He stressed that he was not challenging the conviction itself.

As for the conviction, yes, it was all done. We had no issue with the conviction. It was the sentencing that I was appealing to the mind of the judge about, he stated.

According to him, the court had already established that Wontumi was “the directing mind” behind most of his businesses, therefore to him, a lengthy custodial sentence could have wider economic consequences.

If the court keeps him in incarceration for long, his businesses are going to be affected. The court should consider the fact that he is a businessman and employs a lot of people directly and indirectly, he said.

He added that his concern was the possible effect on workers and youth employment.

It was due to the youth unemployment that could come as a result of his being away from his business. That was the only thing. I was just appealing to the mind of the judge, he explained.

The lawyer also clarified that sharing the same first name as Wontumi was merely coincidental.

My name is Bernard, so probably just by name, but I have no business with him. I had just come to court to listen, but I was moved, he said.

He reiterated that his actions were consistent with normal courtroom practice.

It is pure courtroom practice where any person could get up as a friend of the court and put in some words in mitigation for an accused person who has been convicted. I am not his lawyer on record.

When asked whether he had hoped for a lighter punishment, he responded: “I was hoping for the barest minimum of punishment.”He noted that the law provides for a sentence of up to 15 years and said he would have been satisfied if the minimum sentence had been imposed”.

If the judge had given him the minimum, I would have been happy. But for all the things we had said, maybe he was going to get something. I don’t know; I’m not in the mind of the judge,” he added.

The lawyer concluded by saying that what he and another lawyer did was “very ordinary in the way courts handle matters”, and that such interventions are a common feature of mitigation proceedings after a conviction has been secured.

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Legal practitioner calls for Wontumi’s sentence to be slashed, argues several employees livelihood depend on him

Legal practitioner calls for Wontumi’s sentence to be slashed, argues several employees livelihood depend on him

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