Ghana’s top court has ruled that the admission of some former Guantanamo bay prison detainees from the United States of America in the West African country was illegal.
Two Ghanaian citizens last year sued the government accusing it of illegally bringing in the two former Gitmo detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby to Ghana without recourse to the laws of the land.
Atef and Al-Dhuby had been in detention for 14 years by the United States after being linked with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
A seven member Supreme Court panel presided over by the country’s new Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo by six to one (6 -1) majority decision upheld as unconstitutional the decision by the former President John Mahama to admit two Gitmo detainees in 2016 without approval by parliament.
The Supreme Court says the agreement reached by the the government of Ghana and the United States was ought to have approved by the country’s lawmakers.
Ghana’s government now has three months to ensure that parliament debates and takes a decision on the presence of the former detainees or in default send them back to the United States.
Source: Africafeeds.com
