Ghana’s former president wrong to accept Gitmo detainees: Supreme Court rules
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The Supreme Court in Ghana has ruled that the past government acted unconstitutionally by receiving two former detainees of Guantanamo Bay in an agreement with the US government
The Supreme Court in Ghana has ruled that the past government acted unconstitutionally by receiving two former detainees of Guantanamo Bay in an agreement with the US government.
The ruling states that the John Dramani Mahama administration needed to seek the consent of the legislature before accepting the two Yeminis who had been held in prison for a decade. The court gave the parliament three months to ratify the deal or deport the detainees.
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The detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby arrived Ghana in January last year to a huge outcry by a section of civil society saying they posed a threat to national security.
The then-government had previously explained to the court that the content of the agreement entered into by the two governments was a diplomatic communication that was unsigned and written in the third person.
Two Ghanaians Margaret Bamful and Henry Nana Boakye sued the Attorney General and Minister of Justice together with the Minister of Interior for the then Government’s decision to admit the terror suspects without recourse to the law.
The US last year engaged a number of African countries in prisoner transfer deals in preparation to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Mahama lost elections to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December last 2016 as he attempted a second term bid.
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