CHRAJ TAKES ACTION ON REMAND PRISONERS

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is to draw the attention of the Attorney-General to the discovery that some suspects have been on remand for more than five years.

It is also considering providing lawyers for those who cannot afford the services of lawyers to represent them in their trials. There are 10 of such remand cases.

Mr. Edward Elolo, Public Relations Officer of CHRAJ, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency after a visit to the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison.

The visit, which was a follow-up to one he undertook last year, took him to the two condemned cells of the prison, where 222 prisoners on death row are being kept.

Mr. Elolo said the commission will investigate the probability of minors in prison to ensure adherence to the convention on the rights of the child which Ghana was the first to ratify. He appealed to non-governmental organisations to go to the aid of the prisoners with drugs and bedding.

Though conditions at both cells were appalling, the prisoners mustered enough courage to sing a gospel song to welcome the CHRAJ officers.

Apart from the stench of urine and sweat which filled the cells, there was evidence of overcrowding with an average of six persons sleeping in a cell meant for two prisoners. Nearly 99 per cent of those on death row were convicted for murder. Most of them had swollen feet apparently from lack of exercise and malnutrition.

In a petition, they pleaded for government to reduce the 10-year limit for the sentence of a prisoner on death row to be commuted to life imprisonment, adding that though the privilege has been granted twice most of those who qualify are still on death row. Those who were sentenced by the defunct public tribunals have had their appeals struck off by the Court of Appeal with reason that the tribunals are no more.

The prisoners mentioned food and bedding as major problems. They said the lack of beds has compelled some to sleep on card boards while the food ration has reduced and is also poor in nutrients. The Assistant Director of Prisons in-charge of Nsawam, Mr. Fred Anka, explained that there is no laid-down procedure for the granting of amnesty, explaining further that sometimes the way a crime is committed determines whether one qualifies for amnesty. In the case of minors they sometimes falsify their ages to get a shorter prison sentence instead of a longer stay in a barstool institution. _GNA