Amnesty International Report 1994 - Ghana

Six demonstrators were detained briefly following a peaceful, unauthorized demonstration. One prisoner of conscience was released after completing a prison sentence. Several students were assaulted and two were shot and wounded by police following demonstrations. Three prisoners were sentenced to death and 12 executed. The 1992 Constitution came into force in January and President J.J. Rawlings swore in a civilian government in March. Most ministers were former members of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), the military government which seized power under Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings in 1981. Under the new Constitution the Public Order (No. 2) Law, PNDC Law 288 of 1992, was automatically repealed. This law allowed 28 days' administrative detention without charge or trial on the authority of the Minister of the Interior with no recourse to the courts. The new Constitution provided for any detainee to be brought before a court within 48 hours of arrest. In July Parliament abolished the National Public Tribunal, the highest in a system of special courts created in 1982 which were not independent of the executive and whose procedures did not guarantee a fair trial. Appeals from lower Public Tribunals can now be made to the higher courts in the ordinary court system. Public Tribunal chairpersons have to have the same qualifications as High Court judges and the judiciary was given the main responsibility for their appointment. Also in July, the government established a Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Ghana. There were public protests at the renewed government employment of Warrant Officer Salifu Amankwah, convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1987 but granted an amnesty in 1988 by the Head of State before his appeal had been heard. It was widely alleged that his release so soon after conviction was due to his close relationship with the government. Salifu Amankwah had been in charge of a traffic police task force which in many cases had illegally arrested and beaten suspects, and had been convicted of beating and killing a retired accountant. Warrant Officer Amankwah was returned to his former post. The family of the murdered man had not received any compensation from the government. Six men were arrested and reportedly beaten following a peaceful demonstration in February against the government's economic policies. Charged with holding an unauthorized demonstration, they were released on bail the next day. Charges brought against them under the 1972 Public Order Decree were withdrawn in March. In July the Supreme Court ruled that parts of the Public Order Decree were inconsistent with the right to demonstrate without police permit, granted by the 1992 Constitution. One prisoner of conscience was released in May at the end of his sentence. George Naykene, editor of the Christian Chronicle newspaper, had been sentenced in April 1992 to 18 months' imprisonment after being convicted of libel (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In July Eben Quarcoo, editor of the Free Press newspaper, was reportedly detained briefly following his publication of allegations of corruption against a government minister and the President's wife. In response to an application for habeas corpus in February, the High Court in Accra ordered the authorities to produce 10 prisoners in court. The application failed when the prison authorities refused to produce the prisoners on the grounds that they had been lawfully imprisoned following conviction for offences against the security of the state between 1983 and 1987. Some were political prisoners. All had been convicted by Public Tribunals. In February Hadi Tahidu Damba, and three others who were not in court, were convicted by the National Public Tribunal on various charges of conspiracy and causing criminal damage, in connection with bomb attacks in Accra and Tema in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Hadi Tahidu Damba was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to six months' imprisonment; the others were sentenced in absentia to between two and 10 years' imprisonment. The trial of Professor Albert Adu-Boahen, leader of the opposition New Patriotic Party, and Kwesi Pratt, a journalist and former prisoner of conscience, had not been completed by the end of the year. They had been charged in December 1992 with refusing to testify in the case against Hadi Tahidu Damba and others: they disputed the jurisdiction of the National Public Tribunal. In June the Supreme Court ruled that their trial had not started before the National Public Tribunal, and the Chief Justice, under the transitional provisions of the new Constitution, reassigned the case to the High Court. The defendants appealed against a High Court ruling that new charges could be brought, and the case had not proceeded by the end of the year. In February six newspaper sellers in Accra were reportedly arrested and beaten by security officers at Osu Castle, the seat of government. They apparently had their heads forcibly shaved and their takings seized for selling newspapers in the wrong place. They included two boys, aged 14 and 16. Following demonstrations in Accra on 22 and 23 March in support of increased loans to students, a number of students were assaulted and three female students were shot and wounded by police in their hall of residence. In June an internal committee of inquiry reported that the police had "over-reacted" and that there had been no justification for the use of force against the students. The Minister of the Interior said that injured students would be compensated. By the end of the year, the students had not received any compensation, and no official action had been taken against the police involved: they were not brought to justice. Three men were sentenced to death by the National Public Tribunal in February after being convicted of armed robbery. Twelve prisoners were executed by firing-squad in July, in the first executions since February 1990. They had been convicted on various charges of murder or armed robbery, and some for both. In May a Togolese opposition group based in exile in Ghana reportedly detained a Togolese national, Vincent Coco Adote Akouete-Akue, and killed him in captivity. He was apparently suspected of betraying the group. Amnesty International expressed concern at the resumption of executions, and appealed for the commutation of all death sentences and for the abolition of the death penalty.