Supreme Court quashes 2020 High Court contempt arrest warrant for Kevin Taylor

In a 4:1 majority decision delivered in Accra on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, the Supreme Court said the process breached the principles of natural justice and denied him the right to be heard.

In  a 4-1 majority decision, the court quashed the bench warrant on the basis that it was issued without due process.

Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, who presided was joined by Justices Senyo Dzamefe, Gbiel Simon Suurbaareh and Philip Bright Mensah, as the majority.

Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu dissented.

The arrest warrant was issued in January 2020 by the High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour in a contempt case.

Taylor had been cited for making comments on social media in a relation to a case that was pending before the court and was deemed disrespectful to the judiciary.

Although he was never arrested, the warrant remained in force until the Tuesday morning Supreme Court decision.

The decision in quashing the arrest warrant effectively brings to an end a five-year legal standoff that stemmed from Taylor’s commentary on a case presided over by Justice Kyei Baffour.

Background

The said warrant was for Taylor to appear before the court and show why he should not be imprisoned for contempt.

Justice Eric Kyei-Baffour, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, sitting as a High Court judge, issued the warrant on January 16, 2020 due to a video circulated by Taylor on Facebook.

Justice Kyei-Baffour issued the warrant before the cross examination of Eugene Baffour-Bonnie, one of the accused persons and a former Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Taylor said in the video that Justice Kyei-Baffour was promoted to the Court of Appeal from the High Court because he was doing the bidding of the government in the trial of the five people accused of embezzling $4 million belonging to the National Communications Authority (NCA).

In his ruling, Justice Kyei-Baffour said the video by Taylor sought to incite people against him and the court.

He held that Taylor’s action was scandalous and an affront to the justice delivery system.

“As a judge of impeccable integrity and outmost honesty, I find it necessary to invoke the powers vested in me under the constitution to proceed and cite him for contempt.

”I issue a warrant for him to be produced before the court to show cause why he should not be committed to prison,” Justice Kyei-Baffour ruled.

The warrant was directed to the Ghana Police service and other security agencies to find Taylor who was said to be outside the country.