Suspect kept in prison for 16 yrs without trial

KWEKU DAAKYE Ketu, a suspect who was alleged to have murdered his own daughter in 1989, still languishes in Ankaful Prison in the Central Region. Information picked up by The Chronicle indicated that Ketu, who on July 3, this year, marked his 16 years in jail, was said to have married one Adjoa Adisa and had a daughter by her, called Akua Ketuwa.

Along the line, the paper learnt, they divorced and Adisa got married to Kwesi Quanu at Ahwiasu Nkwanta, near Assin Fosu where Ketu lived. Adisa went away with their daughter after the divorce.

At certain point in time Adisa and her newfound husband, Quanu, reported to Ketu that the girl had gone missing.

Ketu immediately informed the chief of the town about the incident. A search party was organized quickly upon the instructions of the chief.

In the course of the search, the girl was found dead in a well on Quanu's rice farm.

Before Ketu could report the case to the police, the couple had already reported the incident to the police at Assin Fosu. Ketu was arrested on suspicion and placed in custody at Ankaful Prison, where he has been for the past 16 years.

Lawyers the paper spoke to maintained that if the suspect had been tried and sentenced for even 20 years, he would have served his jail term long ago.

Apart from Ketu, who has spent 16 years without trial, other inmates, according to the paper's source, have spent more than 10 years without trial.

Observers are meanwhile are asking what human rights activists in the country are doing in connection with this kind of human rights abuse, citing example of Mr. Anthony Rau, an internationally acclaimed Ghanaian human rights activist based in Germany, who has been championing human rights cause in the country for sometime now.