Five months after the Human Rights Court entered judgement in his favour, Francis Agyare, the 46-year-old man who was imprisoned for 14 years without trial, is yet to receive his compensation.
The court on March 13, 2014 awarded GH₵200,000 against the state for what it termed as unreasonable and unjustifiable detention of the victim.
Justice Essel Kofi Mensah in his judgement said the act by the state was not just an affront to the 1992 Constitution but also to the various human rights charters to which Ghana was a signatory.
The situation has left Francis Agyare devastated without any kind of hope; he told The Finder that his hope of getting some money to restart is life is becoming a mirage.
�I have been waiting for my compensation since March. I really don�t know when it will come. I am just praying that I get justice and what is due me.�
The court on April 4, 2014 issued and ordered a Certificate of Judgement to be served on the Attorney General (AG) and the Accountant General�s Department.
According to Mr Francis Xavier-Sosu, lawyer of the victim, who spoke to The Finder in an interview, the certificate was served on both parties on April 5, 2014.
�We have been pursuing the AG for months and we have gone back and forth with them. Two weeks ago, August 1, 2014 I had a call from the AG indicating that they have forwarded the document to the Ministry of Finance for approval to be further forwarded to the Accountant General�s for payment.�
He said for now he was not even sure of when the payment was going to be done. The situation, he added, was really worrying and that it was indeed disturbing his client.
�The last time I was at the AG�s Department I got to know that the case had been included in a report the AG was sending to Amnesty International indicating that the case, for example, shows the country�s level of commitment to human rights and upholding the rights of unlawful remanded prisoners.
�It therefore beats my imagination that with all this the departments are not handling the compensation of a victim of human right abuse with the swiftness that it deserves. As it stands now we can�t even tell when the Accountant General�s Department will be paying the victim.�
The Judgement
Justice Essel Kofi Mensah on March 13 indicated that society would be at risk if the state was allowed to imprison people without trial.
�The ordeal the applicant went through must not be encouraged in a country where there is rule of law,� the judge noted, adding that inasmuch as the state had the constitutional duty of ensuring the safety and security of all, the court had the duty of ensuring that the liberties of individuals were not abused.
He said looking into the case, there was no evidence before the court that the detention was based on any order from any court since January 10, 1994 when he was remanded until his release in May 2008. �Even though the state said in its affidavit in opposition to that of the applicant�s that the accused was rightfully arrested and that what happened was unreasonable delay and not unlawful detention, the state could not produce any document whatsoever to support their claim.
�It is sad that the state did not heed to the request of the applicant to produce all necessary document before the court. The state was economical with the truth in its affidavit,� pointing out that they had failed to establish the lawfulness of the applicant�s detention.
He said it was extremely difficult to quantify the extent to which the state has ruined Francis� life taking into consideration the fact that he lost his livelihood, his finances, his health, his family, his son dropping out of school and the fact that he cannot reintegrate into society due to stigmatisation.
In that vein, Justice Mensah declared that Francis was unlawfully detained and that the state should pay him damages of GH₵200,000 for both monetary and other things he lost.
Background of the Case
Mr Francis Agyare, now 46, was arrested on January 5, 1994 with about 57 suspected criminals at the James Town Beach, where he had gone to buy fish for himself and his family.
Fofo Afagadzi, who is now facing life imprisonment at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, had pointed at Agyare as one of his accomplices. Without any investigation to ascertain the veracity of the allegation, the applicant was charged with robbery and, together with other suspects, taken to court on January 10, 1994.
At the court, the police asked that he be remanded in prison custody, pending further investigations and trial along with the other accused persons.
At the Nsawam Prison, the applicant was kept in Block 1 Cell 9 with other remand prisoners and was never given the chance to go back to court for over 14 years.
Agyare was denied the benefit of being with convicted prisoners, since as a remand prisoner he was perpetually confined to Block 1 Cell 9, with no opportunity of freedom even within the walls of the prison for more than 14 years.
On his eventual release on May 29, 2008 under the Justice for All Programme, the judge, Mr Justice D.K. Ofosu Quartey, described his continued remand as a breach of his fundamental human rights.
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