Rokko Frempong's murder: Court orders state to produce detained soldiers

Rokko Frempong was killed in 2007

The Human Rights Court in Accra has ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions to produce four soldiers detained for their alleged role in the murder of former deputy managing director of Ghana Commercial Bank.

Rokko Frempong was killed at his home in Tema in 2007.

In court on Wednesday, Justice Irene Dankwa ordered that the detained soldiers should be brought before her in one week.

The court has also ordered the DPP to file a written report for the continuous confinement of the soldiers when charges have not been filed against them in court.

The order follows intense calls by the wives of the soldiers who said they had not set eyes on their husbands since their arrests.

One of the women, Madam Felicity Arthur on behalf of her husband and wives of the other soldiers, stated in an affidavit seeking an order of Habeas Corpus directed against the Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Attorney-General to produce the soldiers and state the reason for their detention without authority or sanction from any court of competent jurisdiction.

Madam Arthur said that “the continued incarceration and detention of our spouses by the Bureau of National Investigations and/or any other state institution or body without recourse to law is a breach of the 1992 Constitution, more particularly articles 12 and 14 thereof.”

Sergeants Michael Arthur and Richard Somuah as well as Corporal Charles Ankomah and Emmanuel Antwi were picked up two weeks ago by the BNI.

Since their arrest, however, the four have been kept in custody without formal charges.

Lawyers for the detained soldiers on Wednesday told the court that the continuous detention of their clients is unjustified.