Court to decide fate of suspects in missing teacher's case

Ho, April 3, GNA - A High Court at Ho is to decide on Tuesday April 17, whether to grant bail to two suspects now being kept in custody in the case of the missing teacher at Woe in the Keta District.

A magistrate's court at Anloga had remanded Osofogah Korblah Question, herbalist and Fred Mawuvi Alixe, driver, 52, on March 21, this year for kidnapping, conspiracy and possession of stolen property. The two were among seven others picked up by police in their investigations into the disappearance of Wilson Tenu, 29, a Teacher at the Salvation Army School who was said to have left home on September 9, 2006 and had since not been seen.

Justice Amosa Abanga, presiding said he expected that the police would have speeded up investigations into the matter and especially exhume bodies at an alleged secret cemetery being operated by Korblah Question for identification if necessary and file in the report before the adjourned date.

He said though the suspects had been charged with kidnapping, the alleged existence of a cemetery labelled as secret, made it important for some deeper investigations before a decision on the bail application.

Justice Abanga chided the police for being too slow with the investigations and thought that in accordance with normal police investigation work they could have tackled the cemetery issue with dispatch without any order from the court since all cemeteries in Ghana were considered public.

Mr Charles Hayibor, leading a team of lawyers for the suspects in an affidavit supporting the motion for bail said the charges preferred against his clients were not those for which bail could not be granted. He said the impression he gathered was that his clients were being remanded as a form of punishment, which was a flagrant violation of their constitutional rights.

Mr Hayibor submitted that police had no basis, six months after the report of the missing teacher to hold his clients in custody and that they were acting on rumours and suspicion. He said: "Rumours of commission of a crime do not amount to commission of crime- they have no shred of evidence."

Mr Hayibor appealed to the court to grant bail to his clients adding that they were prepared to defend themselves when the police were ready with their evidence.

Mr Hayibor commenting on the scores of sympathizers of the missing teacher in the courtroom clad and decked in red said the court was "working on law and not emotions".

Mrs Felicia Otchere-Darko, State Attorney, held that though the charges were second-degree felonies, the suspects might interfere with police investigation if granted bail.

She said the police were working on a lot of hints and needed a little more time to conclude their investigations, submitting that the two had not been held for unreasonably long period.

The State Attorney said there was no punishment in detaining the suspects and pleaded the court to consider the nature and severity of the case.