A 90-year-old man jailed for defilement at Techiman, whose plight the 'Times' published on Thursday, has died.
The nonagenarian, Sulemana Basare, died at the Sunyani Government Hospital on Tuesday, 11 days after he was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Techiman Circuit Tribunal on a charge of defiling a 16-year-old girl.
According to the medical report, he died of "Senile dimentia" which resulted in his inability to control his stool and urine.
The 'Times' reported that the officers of the Sunyani Central Prisons where he had been sent had expressed doubts as to whether he actually committed the offence, considering his state of health and physical condition. They called on the authorities to pardon and release him.
Mr Richard Kuuire, Director General of Prisons Service disclosed the old man’s death to the paper in a telephone interview on Thursday.
He said that the Ghana Prisons had planned to make a case to President Kufuor for amnesty because of his age and health condition.
Mr Kuuire said that the conviction of Sulemana, even in the state in which he was underscored the urgent need to introduce non-custodial sentences which the service had been agitating for.
The Prisons boss said that if such non-custodial sentences were introduced, "appropriate sentences would be found for cases such as this unique one".
He asked the Government to critically consider the health situation in prisons and ensure that prisoners were granted exemptions where they were destitute.
