Ghana sentences six coup plotters to death

January 25, 2024 1

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Six persons have been sentenced to death in Ghana for their alleged roles in a coup plot in 2019.

A High Court on Wednesday convicted the six persons on counts of conspiracy to commit high treason and committing high treason.

They have been sentenced to death by hanging. One of those sentenced is already deceased, local media has reported.

Three other persons including a senior police office and two military officers were acquitted after a trial that commenced on June 8, 2021 and ended on July 12, 2022.

Charges were brought against the accused on April 24, 2021 after their arrest ahead of the 2020 general elections.

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The arrest of the senior police chief, Dr. Benjamin Agordzor at the time made major media headlines.

He was accused of communicating with some those convicted for plotting the alleged coup to destabilise the country.

Ghana’s death penalty status

The last time convicts on death row in Ghana were executed was in 1993. Capital punishment was reserved for offences including murder, treason and genocide.

Human rights organizations have for long pushed for Ghana to abolish the death penalty especially when for decades it hasn’t been executed on those given such a punishment.

Ghana’s lawmakers last year voted to abolish the death penalty and remove it from the country’s statute books.

The parliamentarians approved for the death penalty to be replaced with life sentence as part of an amendment to the Criminal and Other Offences Act.

The amendment bill, sponsored by one of the MPs was passed but the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo hasn’t assented to it yet.