A Supreme Court judge, Justice Jones Dotse, has expressed worry over the conduct of some High Court judges who disregard a ruling by the Supreme Court that says all offences in the country are bailable.

According to him, there is a deliberate attempt by some judges, magistrates, prosecutors, and the public to undo the decision meant to sanitise the criminal remand system in the country.

The Supreme Court, by a 5-2 decision, struck out the country’s law on non-bailable offences. The court described the law, which had been in existence for nearly three decades, as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court made the ruling in a case titled Martin Kpebu v Attorney General filed in February 2015.

Prior to the ruling, the law said suspects facing charges such as treason, subversion, murder, robbery, hijacking, piracy, rape, and defilement or escape from lawful custody could not be admitted to bail. The statutory restrictions were in line with Section 96 (7) of Ghana’s Criminal Procedure Code as amended.

The same statute forbade judges from granting bail in cases where a person was being held for extradition to a foreign country. Again, Ghanaian law – after relevant amendments during the fourth Parliament of the fourth republic – prohibited presiding judges from granting bail to suspects standing trial for breaking the nation’s drug laws.

But after the Supreme Court struck out the law on non-bailable offences, a circular was issued that a court that has the jurisdiction to hear cases such as murder, rape, treason, piracy, and defilement, among others, could grant suspects bail.

Justice Dotse, speaking at a law symposium at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), said the conduct of the judges who disregard the Supreme Court’s ruling that all offences are bailable, threatens to destroy the criminal justice system.

“It appears there is a coordinated and deliberate attempt by some judges, magistrates, prosecutors, and the public to undo the effects of the decision in the Martin Kpebu case. Even before the decision in the Martin Kpebu case was delivered in order to sanitise the criminal remand system in the country, the following circular and directives were issued at the instance of her Ladyship the Chief Justice on 11 November 2009. The above directive was complied with for a brief period and due to logistical constraint, in the mindset of the judges and magistrates, it is now honoured more in the breach than in its observance,” he stated.

“It will be surprising that despite all the above efforts by the judiciary as an institution coupled with the recent decision in Martin Kpebu vs Attorney General, the issue of grant of bail in the criminal justice system which should have been sanitised and brought under decent control still remains a mirage and threatens to destroy the criminal justice system.”