ACCRA, Ghana
Six Ghanaians, including three soldiers, were convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to death by hanging for their involvement in an alleged plot three years ago to overthrow the country's government.
The men were arrested in 2021
while testing weapons at an old shooting range in Accra, and intelligence
telephone taps led to a blacksmith shop, where they ordered the weapons
manufactured, according to court documents.
They had all pleaded not
guilty during the trial. Police posted a heavily armed units outside the high
court for the hearing and sentencing.
The high court, however,
acquitted a police chief Benjamin Agordzo, army officer Colonel Samuel Kodzo
Gameli, and one other junior military officer, Corporal Seidu Abubakar.
"We give glory to God. He
alone has made it happen. They knew it was falsehood. Our God doesn't fail. I
have always been free within my heart and I knew how it was going to end,"
a visibly elated police chief Agordzo told the media following his acquittal.
The six, including a gunsmith
and a civilian employee of the Ghana Armed Forces, were charged with conspiracy
to commit treason in 2021.
Ghana's attorney general
Godfred Yeboah Dame who led the prosecution hailed the outcome of the trial.
"It is a significant
judgment because the constitution of Ghana as the fundamental law of the
country, which has sustained the stability of the nation, frowns seriously upon
any attempt to overthrow a government and that is why that offence [treason] is
punishable by death," Dame told the media after the trial.
According to court documents,
the men were arrested at their base in the capital Accra with
locally-manufactured guns, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and AK-47 rifles
and other ammunition.
Dame said the accused belonged
to an association called Take Action Ghana (TAG) and had planned to stage
demonstrations, ostensibly to topple the government.
It is the first treason trial
in Ghana since 1963 when the first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown.
Ghana last executed a criminal under the death penalty in 1992 when it returned
to constitutional rule.
The new ruling comes as the
West African country, known for its stable democracy since 1992, faces
heightened security while the wider region has seen a spate of coups in recent
years.
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