25 years jail term for rapists good enough to deter others - Lawyer

Legal practitioner, Mr Lamtiig Apanga has stated that the maximum 25 years jail term given to rapists in the country should be able to deter people from the act but some people are still very recalcitrant to obey the law.

According to him, perpetrators who engage in unscrupulous practices, including rape, in spite of their knowledge of the law should have their behavioural patterns checked.

“25 years maximum in prison for rape is not a small joke. I am not justifying, I am saying that we can even make it harsher. We should look at observing the patterns of the behaviour of people, who engage in such conducts, and they will help inform us in a more scientific way,” he said in an interview with GhanaWeb on June 17, 2020.

He added that though the sentence for murder could be life imprisonment, there are people who still take others’ life. The same could be applied to other social vices, even though the law has clearly defined the punishment that will be meted out to them.

“The punishment for murder is a life sentence, but we still have murder cases. Some persons are recalcitrant. You will find at the right spot where someone has been arrested and being dealt with, another person is committing a similar offence,” he said.

He concluded that the system is committed to bringing rape perpetrators into the grip of the law to deter others from engaging in such practices.

“The system’s aim is to find and punish people who are committing such offences. Some people will go against the norm in any way. The system must always bring out those people and check them so that others will learn,” he concluded.