The husband of Valentine Nana Agyeiwa (a.k.a. Afia Schwarzenegger), Lawrence Abrokwah, has been charged with multiple offences.
He was charged with threat of harm, publication of obscene material, assault and two counts of domestic violence, to wit, emotional, verbal and psychological abuse. The Accused person (Mr. Abrokwah) pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against him by the Prosecution, when he made his first appearance in an Accra Circuit Court.
Lawyer for the Accused made an oral application for Mr. Abrokwa to be granted bail, which the Court obliged. The Accused was given bail in the sum of 20,000 Cedis with three sureties, who should be gainfully employed. He will re-appear in court on Wednesday, the 11th of October, 2017.
The Judge, Her Honour Jane Harriet Akweley Quaye, advised the Lawyer, the Accused person and the Complainant to stop trying the matter in the media since it was now in court.
Briefing the Court on the facts of the case, the Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Maxwell Oppong, said the Accused person and the Complainant (Afia Schwarzenegger) are legally married and lived together at Dome Pillar II, a suburb of Accra, in a house which belongs to the Complainant.
He added that about some weeks ago, the Accused person packed his belongings and left the House following persistent misunderstanding between them.
Chief Inspector Oppong also said that on the 29th of August, 2017, the Accused person was informed by their maidservant, Afia Nyamekye, that the complainant had a male visitor who would be spending the night with her.
Based on the information and armed with a kitchen knife and a bottle containing a liquid substance purported to be acid, the Accused forcefully entered the bedroom of the Complainant, where he saw his wife with another man in bed.
The Accused used the camera on his cell phone to film the incident while threatening to pour the purported acid on the complainant and her guest if they tried to escape. The complainant’s guest managed to escape in the process but the Complainant was prevented by the Accused from escaping.
The Prosecution said that the Accused filmed the nakedness of the Complainant and sent the said video to the Complainant’s father, adding that the video later went viral.
Chief Inspector Oppong also informed the Court that the purported acid was sent to the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) for examination where it turned out not to be acid, but water.
