A lawyer for Montie3, Nana Ato Dadzie, has defended the decision of President John Mahama to grant them pardon in line with Article 72 of the 1992 constitution.
The decision has been rigorously condemned by some members of the public who have the described the president’s recourse to Article 72 as arbitrary and capricious.
According to critics of the move, especially opposition political parties, it was wrong for the president to have exercised his power to free party supporters who had been lawfully jailed by the Supreme Court.
But in a reaction on News File on Accra-based Joy FM, Nana Ato Dadzie rejected claims that President Mahama’s power has been capriciously exercised.
He stressed that the Montie 3 were first and foremost Ghanaians who were entitled to a presidential pardon.
Rejecting assertions that the President Mahama's decision had been informed by partisan considerations, he said the president had also granted pardon to former New Patriotic Party MP for Bawku Central, Adamu Sakande Dramani, five months into his two-year sentence.
Nana Ato Dadzie said having shown remorse after spending a month in jail and also paying the "heavy fines" imposed on them, the Montie 3 deserved the pardon they got.
Montie FM presenter Salifu Maase, aka, ‘Mugabe’ and panellists Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn were jailed four months by the Supreme Court after being found guilty of contempt.
They had reportedly threatened to kill judges who ruled that the Electoral Commission should delete the names of 53,000 NHIS cards registrants from the voters'Â register.
The president, however, pardoned them a month into their sentence after receiving a petition for him to do so.
In a statement issued by the communications ministry, President Mahama said he had granted the pardon on compassionate grounds in consultation with the council of state.
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