Release agreement on ex-detainees

Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh 14:09 - 28 July 2016

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The court stated that despite government insisting the agreement was a note verbal it is not covered by the state Secrecy Act. Therefore, this can be given to the lawyers and admitted into evidence.

The Supreme Court has ordered the government to provide the court with the agreement between it and the government of the United States of America before accepting to take the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees into the country.

The court stated that despite government insisting that the agreement was a note verbal it is not covered by the state Secrecy Act. Therefore, this can be given to the lawyers and admitted into evidence.

The court also explained that the agreement is not for public consumption but only for the consumption of the court.

Margaret Banful and Henry Nana Boakye filed a suit against the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, and Minister of Interior on the relocation of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammed Salih Al-Dhuby in Ghana without seeking parliamentary approval.

But the suit they filed explained that under Article 58(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana is under an obligation to execute and maintain the Antiterrorism Act of 2008 (Act 762) and the Immigration Act of 2000 (Act 573) being laws passed under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

At the previous hearing of the case which was done in camera, the verbal note was provided to the court after which the decision to order the release of the agreement was issued.