The fate of Anthony Kofi Mensah and Maria O'Sullivan Djentuh will be determined today when an Accra Public Tribunal presided over by Mrs. Elizabeth Yeboah-Anderson passes what it terms an "appropriate sentence" on Mr. and Mrs. Djentuh.
It may be recalled that on August 15, 2000, the Accra Circuit Tribunal convicted the two persons of assaulting a public officer and offensive conduct. They were however acquitted on a charge of deceiving a public officer and remanded in custody for two weeks. The couple will re-appear from their remand to know their fate.
The two-week incarceration has been publicly condemned by the Ghana Bar Association and various commentators on radio talk shows.
It has also resulted in the son of the Djentuhs, Selassie asking for political asylum in the UK. His arrest and detention at The Castle - the seat of the Presidency in Ghana prompted the prosecution of the parents who are said to have gone to demand his release and allegedly engaged in offensive conduct.
In a related development, the international human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has raised questions about the kind of justice currently prevailing in Ghana and is of the opinion that the Djentuhs are "probably prisoners of conscience imprisoned because they spoke out publicly in defence of their son's human rights".
Amnesty International further reiterated the point that "it is widely believed that a series of attacks on the family, both physical and in the government-controlled news media, are connected to a former relationship between Selassie and a daughter of President Rawlings".
In a statement released on August 25 from London, five days before Ghanaians got to know the fate of the Djentuhs and headed "Ghana: Detention and Abduction with Impunity", Amnesty International expressed concern that though the two persons have been prosecuted and detained, the "authorities have not investigated allegations of serious human rights violations against them and their son" by security forces.
