News:
March 29, 2016
An NPP lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea says the party will cite the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for contempt after the security agency refused to release his clients even though a court had granted them bail.
He told Joy News’ Raymond Acquah that by their actions, the BNI has told the court that its authority “does not matter”.
Major Chris Hazis (rtd), WO Denver Dwayhe and Capt. Mlungiseli Jokani had been detained for almost a week and charged with unlawful training and conspiracy to commit crime.
In a shocking move, the BNI took them back into custody despite a Circuit Court in Accra granting them bail in the sum of ¢20,000 to each of them.
But before the case could be called again on April 12, the three foreigners were seen Tuesday morning, boarding a South African Airways flight bound for Johannesburg at the Kotoka International Airport.
Joy News’ Raymond Acquah reports that before the deportation, the state had dropped all the charges brought against the three ex-cops.
But the lawyer noted the party is undeterred by the deportation and wants the BNI punished. “When it is contempt, it is contempt…we are going to court very soon”, he stressed.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) which hired them had explained they were in the country to train the bodyguards of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the party.Atta Akyea has, however, described the deportation has belittled the seriousness of the country’s security systems.
He said if the state really believes that the SA nationals were criminals, it should have prosecuted them in court because that is what properly governed societies do.
The deportation, the lawyer said, indicates that the charges brought by the state against the three were all a ‘farce’.