A private legal practitioner, Godwin Adjei-Gyamfi has petitioned the Amnesty International to investigate the 10-year sentencing of a 36-year-old man who went to President John Mahama’s church, supposedly to kill him.
According to Adjei-Gyamfi , the trial and conviction of Charles Antwi was “absurd.”
“I was very, very incensed by the ruling. I felt that I needed to do something about the situation. The whole process culminated the error…with the greatest respect it think it was diabolical,” he complained.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ACgP0I2k2pzJag6MCY37ONNo0FNdwK4K”]Charles Antwi was on Tuesday handed a 10-year jail term for illegally possessing fire arm.
Although the Police were in court to seek a remand, the Judge after Antwi’s confession pronounced judgement after an amendment was made to the charge.
The prosecution felt Antwi was not mentally stable but the judgment dismissed their claims, insisting Antwi was fine and jailed him.
His sentencing provoked intense public debate with many criticizing the ruling of the Judge.
Speaking to Citi News, lawyer Adjei-Gyamfi argued that when a person indicted or charged with an offence, “it does not matter how grave the indictment may be, he is well entitled to be accorded the due process of law.”
“In this case, I am afraid it did not happen at all. We must be very clear, we must be very clear,” he remarked.
According to him, “just because one is charged with a serious offence does not mean you can take away his fundamental human right which I believe is quite clearly enshrined in the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana