6 foreigners sentenced to death in Ghana – Report

The 2017 report on death sentences and executions by Amnesty International has revealed that six foreign nationals have been sentenced to death in Ghana.

The report indicates as at December, 2017, 160 people were condemned to death for various offences including murder.

This, according to Amnesty international, shows an increase in the number of persons serving death sentences in the country as recorded in 2016.

According to the report, "Out of the 160 death sentences 6 were foreign nations; one from Benin, two from Burkina Faso and the highest number of three from Nigeria. This shows an increase of 12 people known to be under sentence of death from 148 at the end of 2016 to 160 at the end of 2017."

The report shows a global decrease of 17 percent, reflecting a decrease of over 2591 in 2017 from the record high of 3117 of death sentences recorded in 2016.

This means that “The number of countries known to have imposed new death sentences reduced from 55 in 2016 to 53 in 2017”.

In sub Saharan Africa, Amnesty International recorded a drop in the number of executing countries from a significant 5 in 2016 to 2 in 2017.

This according to the report shows a sharp decrease in the number of persons sentenced to death from "2086 in 2016 to 878 in 2017 and that's about 81 percent decrease" in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Among the countries in Africa that have abolished death penalty are; Guinea and Kenya.

"Guinea abolished the death penalty for all crimes and Kenya abolished the mandatory death sentence of murder.

The number of abolitionist countries in the region now stands at 20, from just one in 1981 when the country, Cape Verde abolished the punishment."

Ghana has been listed the 8th country that still sentences “criminals” to death even though the country has not executed condemned prisoners since 1993.

The punishment is yet to be completely abolished from the legal system.





Below is Amnesty International's Death Sentence and Executions 2017 Report