The case involving five persons alleged to have sexually assaulted a teenager at Bantama, has been adjourned to January 31, 2018.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution, the counsel for the suspects did not appear in court.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”BD7cen9Oo1XtLeLYhReNONpOZwM1qiPK”]The case was referred to the Kumasi Circuit Court after it was struck out from the juvenile court<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The suspects, whose relatives were in court, were seen covering their faces with handkerchiefs while they were being escorted by police back into the vehicle.<\/p>\n The Attorney General\u2019s department had earlier\u00a0contended that one of the suspects is aged over 18 years and is now pushing for the case to be tried in a regular court after a hearing on Wednesday, January 17.<\/p>\n But one of the lawyers for the suspects, E. O. Opoku, insisted to\u00a0Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0that his clients were still classified as juveniles since the prosecution had not proven otherwise.<\/p>\n The suspects were released and the initial charges of conspiracy to rape and defilement were dropped, but they were rearrested by police immediately after the in-camera hearing at the Asokwa District Court.<\/p>\n In December 2017, three suspects were initially\u00a0arrested<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0after a video, which allegedly showed them and four others, sexually assaulting a girl, went viral, and was met with widespread criticism from the Ghanaian public.<\/p>\n