ECOWAS Court orders Ghana to pay $75,000 for detaining 30 unlawfully

The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Government of Ghana to pay $75,000 in damages to 30 members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation over their prolonged and unlawful detention.

The judgment, delivered on Friday in Abuja in suit no. ECW/CCJ/APP/12/24, declared that the Ghanaian authorities violated the applicants’ fundamental human rights by detaining them for extended periods—some for over a year—without trial or due process.

“Each of the 30 applicants is to receive $2,500 (in Ghanaian Cedis equivalent) as compensation,” the judge ruled.

Presiding over the case, Justice Ricardo Gonçalves, alongside Justices Sengu M. Koroma and Dupe Atoki, held that the actions of the Ghanaian government contravened both national and international legal standards, including Article 14(3) of Ghana’s Constitution and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantee the right to liberty and require detainees to be presented in court within 48 hours.

The applicants were arrested and held for extended periods, some for over a year, without being brought before a court. This is clearly a violation of their right to liberty,” Justice Gonçalves stated.

The 30 members of the HSGF were arrested on May 8, 2019, under Ghana’s 1976 Prohibited Organisations Decree, which outlaws groups deemed a threat to national security. The applicants argued that their arrest and detention were politically motivated and devoid of legal justification.

While the Court affirmed its jurisdiction to hear the case, it struck out the Homeland Study Group Foundation as a party for lacking legal personality, noting that the group failed to provide registration documents. “No registration documents were presented. Therefore, the Foundation cannot be recognised as a legal entity before this Court,” the judgment read.

The Court, however, upheld the claims of the 30 individual applicants, concluding that their rights had been violated. It dismissed Ghana’s justification of national security, ruling that “even where national security is cited, detention must comply with the law. Detaining individuals for over a year without trial is unjustifiable.”

The panel also rejected the applicants’ claims to the right of self-determination, ruling that neither the Foundation nor its members had the legal standing to make such a claim on behalf of a people or community.

In addition to the compensation, the Court ordered the Ghanaian government to either commence prosecution against the applicants within two weeks or release them unconditionally. All other reliefs sought were dismissed, and both parties were directed to bear their own legal costs.

The full judgment will be formally issued after the judges append their signatures.

PUNCH Online earlier reported Thursday that the same court ordered the Federal Republic of Nigeria to immediately release a Nigerian businessman, Moses Abiodun, who has been held in prolonged pretrial detention since 2008, without being formally charged or tried. https://punchng.com/ecowas-court-orders-fg-to-release-man-detained-without-trial-for-16-years/?amp