Six Ghanaians sentenced to death by hanging for high treason

The six, Warrant Officer II Esther Saan Dekuwine, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, Corporal Sylvester Akanpewon, all soldiers, and Donya Kafui, a blacksmith, Bright Alan Debrah Ofosu, a fleet manager and Johannes Zikpi a civilian employee of the Ghana Armed Forces were found guilty for plotting to overthrow the government.

Two others who are senior security officers and another soldier were however acquitted by the three-member panel of the court after inadequate evidence implicating them in the issue.

"The integrity of the judicial process in Ghana shows that the judicial process in Ghana actually works. Indeed if you look at the judges and their examination of the evidence, it was such a meticulous study of all the evidence that had been put together by the prosecution. We must also pay compliments to the Ghana Armed Forces and Military Command especially Defense Intelligence who picked up the right signals and cleverly monitored them and indeed gathered the evidence otherwise Ghana perhaps would have been in disarray by now," Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame was quoted by local news outlet TV3.

The convicts were arrested in 2021 after they were found with weapons including locally manufactured guns, improvised explosive devices, and AK-47 rifles in Accra, with allegations of an intended overthrow of the government.

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The development is historic considering the West African country has not carried out an execution since 1993.

In August 2023, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to bills that abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes under the Criminal Offences Amendment Bill, 2022, and the Armed Forces Amendment Bill 2022.

Capital punishment has now been replaced with life imprisonment, and High Treason is the only crime punishable by death in the country.