General News of Tuesday, 20 May 2003

Source: EVENING NEWS

Rawlings Can Be Prosecuted - lawyer

Mr. Francis Kojo-Smith, a Constitutional and Human Rights Lawyer, has said that, ex-President Rawlings can be prosecuted in spite of the indemnity clause in the 1992 constitution.

According to him, under the new United Nations International Criminal Court (ICC), the law of immunity is no longer recognized or tenable.

In an interview with the EVENING NEWS in Accra, he said, “it is a sheer folly and abysmal ignorance to assume that Rawlings cannot be prosecuted for atrocities committed during the PNDC regime because of the indemnity provisions of the 1992 constitution”.

He said under the Rome Statue that created the ICC, any former ruler of a state whose regime is accused of violating the human rights of his people can be arrested and brought to trial either in his own country or outside his country regardless of the immunity laws imposed to protect himself and members of his regime.