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General News of Thursday, 31 May 2018

Source: classfmonline.com

Wrongfully jailed teacher deserves better compensation insensitive – Ras Mubarak

Ras Mubarak, MP for Kumbungu Ras Mubarak, MP for Kumbungu

Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak is pushing for a befitting compensation for a teacher who was wrongfully jailed 15 years and awarded GHS45,000 compensation by the Supreme Court after serving 13 years of the term.

Apart from the GHS45, 000, the court also ordered the government of Ghana to pay the 13-year salary of Mr Asante, which he lost as a result of his wrongful incarceration on the allegation of defiling and impregnating a student.

Mr Asante wanted compensation in excess of GHS7.3m for loss of income, psychological trauma, mental disorder among others.

But in a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the court held that Mr Asante failed to prove that he suffered any mental or emotional disorder while in prison.

Mr Mubarak raised the issue on the floor of parliament and questioned why a meagre compensation was given to Mr Asante after all the injustice he suffered.

The lawmaker argued that the amount is inadequate and has filed a question in parliament on the matter.

He told Class91.3FM later in an interview on Thursday, 31 May 2018 that the compensation “smacks of insensitivity”.

For him, the package proposed “can’t make up for lost time, you can’t even quantify and monetise the trauma that anyone who has been wrongfully jailed would be feeling for the rest of their lives knowing very well that they have been accused of a crime they have never committed and jailed for a crime they never committed”.

He is hoping that the leadership of parliament will take the issue up and ensure that the teacher is properly reinstated.