Teacher jailed 10 years for rape freed after DNA test

pulse-ghana admin 13:29 - 26 January 2017

Asante began his appeal at the Supreme Court in 2012 and after a DNA test on the child, the Police Hospital Forensic Laboratory found that there was no paternal link between Asante and the child.

The judgment comes after Mr Asante had spent 10 years of a 15-year jail sentence for the crime which he has now been cleared off.

The defendant had previously appealed his conviction at the Appeals Court by that case was upheld by the country’s second highest court.

However in the judgment given today (Thursday January 26) by the apex court of the land, the evidence upon which the initial sentencing was based on contained a number of inaccuracies and could not serve as concrete ground for a conviction.

In September 2005, Eric Asante was sentenced to 15 years in jail with hard labour by the Tamale High Court after being convicted of defiling a female student, the result of which was a son.

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Asante was released in 2010 from the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons on good conduct after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

Analysis

Ghana’s prisons are congested with many remand prisoners, who claim innocence but are yet to receive their sentences or acquittal.

The courts are saddled with a number of cases and processes at the courts and other law enforcement agencies take a very time for appeals to be heard.