Supreme Court strikes out ‘suicide suit’ as moot

The Supreme Court has struck out a suit challenging the constitutionality of a law that criminalised attempted suicide.

A seven-member panel of the court struck out the suit following a new law by Parliament which amended the law and decriminalised attempted suicide, rendering the legal action moot.

During the hearing of the suit, the Justices of the Supreme Court led by Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, asked state attorneys defending the state in the suit whether they were aware of the new law passed by Parliament which had expunged the offence of attempted suicide.

The lawyers answered in the affirmative. Subsequently, the court struck out the suit. “Because of the passage of the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, 2021, this action is moot and, therefore, struck out,” Justice Baffoe-Bonnie ruled.

Other members of the panel were Justices Avril Lovelace Johnson, Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, Ernest Yao Gaewu, Yaw Darko Asare and Richard Adjei-Frimpong.

Suit

In 2021, a lawyer, Christian Lebrechet Malm-Hesse, went to the Supreme Court with a case that Section 57 (2) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), which made attempted suicide a criminal offence was unconstitutional.

A private legal practitioner has filed a suit at the Supreme Court urging the court to decriminalise “attempt to commit suicide”. In a suit invoking the jurisdiction of the court, Mr Malm-Hesse argued that Section 57 (2) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), which makes attempted suicide a criminal offence is unconstitutional.

Hitherto, Section 57 (2) of Act 29 made “attempt to commit suicide” a misdemeanour which carried a punishment of up to three years’ imprisonment. It was his case that any person who attempted to commit suicide was suffering from a mental disability and should be given psychological treatment and not be incarcerated.

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