General News of Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

Gitmo 2: Supreme Court rules on April 26

The two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees The two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice William Atuguba has set 26th April, 2017 to give its ruling on the suit challenging the legality of Ghana hosting two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees.

This was at a court hearing on Wednesday February 8, Accra News' court correspondent Ama Brako Ampofo has said.

It will be recalled that the plaintiffs, Margaret Bamful and Henry Nana Boakye, sued the Attorney General and Minister of Justice as well as the Minister of Interior in 2016, accusing government of illegally bringing in the two former Gitmo detainees without recourse to the laws of the land.

The two plaintiffs were, therefore, seeking a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana that the president of the Republic of Ghana acted unconstitutionally by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby.

The panel will, therefore, rule whether former President John Mahama erred in his decision to host the two in the country for an agreed period of two years with the US government.