Lawyer Owiredu Donkor, a private legal practitioner has explained that he is against the idea of keeping suspects in custody by law courts without proven guilty.
According to him, law enforcement follows a pattern and added that, this when not done ends up being injustice to other persons.
He says if one flouts a rule or breaks a law, the first point of action is an arrest, then investigations proceed, proffering of charges then court proceedings, then incarceration if the suspect is proved to be guilty.
Speaking on Plan B FM ‘Ebaanosen’ with Bohyeba Afriyie, Mr. Owiredu said that the police are liable to grant suspects police enquiry bails. Continuing he further pointed out that a bail is a legal agreement between the offender and the police / court necessary for further investigations.
His comments follow the case of Shatta Wale, the Ghanaian dancehall artiste who was in police custody for pulling a publicity stunt in his bid to stop the canker of doom prophesies in the country and a statement by, Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, a Supreme Court judge that, suspects should not be remanded needlessly.
The Supreme Court Judge continued, “Let’s make only those who must be kept in prison be in prison, if a person has not been found guilty, he should not be needlessly remanded.”
Lawyer Owiredu further stated that, people caught red handed in acts are still innocent till proven otherwise. The bail charges placed on the heads of these individuals are not necessarily to be paid on the spot, it is just as much as a bond which binds the offender to the conditions of the bail such that, when the offender bolts, his guarantors are mandated to pay twice the amount.
Justifications become necessary if the offender doesn’t have the money but has properties that are equal or more than the speculated amount. These are just protocols that are necessary to compel the offender to show up whenever he is needed to help in investigations. Some of the judges are said to be using remand as a means to punish these offenders.
He also suggested that, some well-known individuals in the country can be granted self-cognizance bail because the tendency of them getting away is very minimal and highly improbable and so they do not even necessitate bail charges.
He mentioned that, there are no laws that spell out who qualifies to sign as surety for a bail. The onus therefore rests on the judges to use their discretion to spell out the sureties they would want in a case. He stated categorically that bail is free especially at the police stations and that; the conditions of the bail must be met strictly.
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