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Ghana court sentences three soldiers, three civilians to death for coup plot
Ghana court sentences six to death for 2019 coup plot, stirring debate on capital punishment.
Photo by Richard Vanderpuije
Six individuals, comprising three soldiers and three civilians, were sentenced to death by hanging by a high court in Ghana. The court, led by Justice Afua Serwaa Akoto Botchway, found them guilty of plotting a coup against the government in 2019.
During the verdict announcement, Justice Botchway stated, “You are hereby sentenced to death by hanging by the neck until your death, and your body will be buried where the president may order.”
In 2021, ACP Benjamin Agordzo and nine others were arraigned before the Accra High Court on charges of conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason.
The trial followed a police swoop at Citadel Hospital in 2019, where state intelligence officers suspected the accused persons were plotting to destabilize the country. Of the ten suspects, six individuals were found guilty of conspiring to commit high treason and committing high treason.
Among the six convicts, Warrant Officer II Esther Saan Dekuwine, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, and Corporal Sylvester Akanpewon were found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason. Donya Kafui, a blacksmith, and Bright Alan Debrah Ofosu, a fleet manager, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit treason and treason, while Johannes Zikpi, a civilian employee of the Ghana Armed Forces, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason.
The high court, however, acquitted police chief Benjamin Agordzo, army officer Colonel Samuel Kodzo Gameli, and another junior military officer, Corporal Seidu Abubakar.
Although Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act provides the death sentence as punishment for acts of high treason, the penalty has been dormant since its last use in the early 1990s.
Reacting to Ghana’s death sentence in an interview with The Associated Press, Genevieve Partington, the country director for Amnesty International, renewed calls for the death sentence to be abolished.
“Amnesty International is completely against the death sentence. In Ghana, we have been fighting to end the death penalty for the past 30 years,” Partington said.
Written by Elliot Nuertey
