Fresh on the minds of Ghanaians is the arrest, or in better expression, the detention of the sitting Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem Norht, Ohene Kwame Frimpong (OK Frimpong), at the Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.

And as against earlier reported claims that he is being held for romance scam-related reasons, the MP, speaking for the first time since the arrest, has reportedly said the only charge Interpol informed him of before his arrest was to do with money laundering.

His arrest has gotten a lot of people talking and speculating, as well as many questions regarding whether or not he is entitled to some immunity or not, but he would not be the first sitting Member of Parliament in Ghana to go through such an ordeal.

On November 12, 2005, Eric Amoateng, who was the New Patriotic Party MP for Nkoranza North, was arrested in the United States of America.

Flight No, Purpose of Visit and More: All you need to know about OK Frimpong's arrest

His arrest was in connection with a heroin trafficking operation.

Amoateng was subsequently tried in a US federal court and later convicted and imprisoned.

His arrest created a major constitutional and political controversy in Ghana because he remained a sitting legislator while in US custody.

Initially, the MP pleaded ‘not guilty’ before subsequently changing the plea to ‘guilty.’

According to reports, the presiding Magistrate Judge Roanne L Mann, in accepting Amoateng's plea, observed that "pursuant to Federal Rule LL of the criminal procedure, a finding has been made that the plea was made knowingly and voluntarily and the plea was not coerced."

The judge further noted that the "plea of GUILTY be accepted and the plea agreement marked as Court Exhibit # 1 Hon Amoateng and his counsel on March 19, 2007, signed document before the court in which defendant Amoateng told the court that after ‘fully discussing the matter fully with my counsel’ he has decided to enter plea of GUILTY.”

Speaking publicly through his lawyer, Dennis Adjei Brenya of New Hampstead, New York, Eric Amoateng had this to say;

"I affirm before my nation that the allegations against me is false. I have not done anything wrong, I emphatically and categorically deny the charges leveled against me, I pray to God that in due time and soon all the facts will come out and I would be totally exonerated."

However, charged with eight counts of importation, conspiracy to import, distributing and conspiracy to distribute, distributing and possession with intension to distribute heroin in America, Eric Amoateng was sentenced to 120 months (10 years) in prison in federal prison by a US District Court in Brooklyn, New York, in December 2007.

In addition to his 10-year prison sentence, he was given 5 years of supervised release.

Amoateng served his sentence at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, and was released from US custody in July 2014 before returning to Ghana.

But his troubles were not over even on his return home because he was confronted with another legal challenge after being accused of possessing a forged passport allegedly issued while he was still in prison.

But this time, he was acquitted after prosecutors failed to prove he knowingly possessed a fraudulent document and was discharged.

AE