AMEND CRIMINAL POCEDURE CODE — Hgh Court judge (PAGE 3)

A High Court Judge, Mr Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo, has called for the amendment of the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Code, Act 633 that prevents high court judges and magistrates from granting bail in some criminal cases pending before them.
That, he said, would ensure the speedy trial of criminal cases and help to decongest the prisons filled with several remand prisoners, some of whom had had their cases pending before the courts for many years.
“Until the Executive and the Legislature take a critical second look at Act 633, the hands of high court judges and magistrates will continue to be tied, since we can never grant bail to persons accused of murder, armed robbery, rape and narcotic offences that are brought before us,” Mr Justice Kaglo said.
Act 633 says emphatically that criminal cases such as murder, rape, narcotic and armed robbery cases are offences that high court judges and magistrates shall not grant bail unless there have been unreasonable delay in prosecuting them.
Mr Justice Kaglo made the call in reaction to the appeal by the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, that the Judiciary should help facilitate the speedy trial of criminal cases pending before the courts.
The speedy trial of cases, Mr Ampofo stated, would help to decongest prisons in the country that were mostly filled with remand prisoners, whose daily upkeep and welfare had imposed a heavy financial burden on the country’s budget.
The Regional Minister had told high court judges and staff of the Judicial Service that about 1,701 remand prisoners, comprising 1,681 males and 20 females, were currently in the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, while 172 remand prisoners were in the Koforidua Prison and 156 in the Akuse Prison, both in the Eastern Region.
According to Justice Kaglo, the increasing number of remand prisoners in the country’s prisons had often been blamed on high court judges and magistrates who had been accused by members of the public and politicians of keeping remand prisoners in the cells.
He cited delays on the part of police investigators and the lawyers of the Attorney-General Department as partly contributing to the delay in the trial of cases of remand prisoners in the courts.
“It is common to find police prosecutors and lawyers of the Attorney-General's Department coming to courts to say that they have not finished with investigations into criminal cases and, therefore, cannot commence with the case in court,” Mr Justice Kaglo explained.
The High Court judge asked, “If police prosecutors and lawyers of the A-G’s Department do not finish with their investigations on time for trial to begin where do we expect judges and magistrates to put these suspects?”.
“What we all fail to recognise is that it is not the judges and magistrates who are responsible for the increasing number of remand prisoners but it is the law that compels them to strictly apply the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Amendment Code.
He added that “a judge cannot do anything when suspects accused of murder, rape, armed robbery and possessing narcotic drugs are brought before the court. We are not allowed to grant them bail apart from keeping them in prisons”.
Earlier, Mr Ofosu Ampofo had said the swelling number of both convicted and remand prisoners, particularly their feeding, had had a severe toll on national budget.
He, therefore, appealed to the Judiciary to expedite action on the trial of remand prisoners’ cases pending before the courts, adding that “the taxpayer’s money being spent on feeding remand prisoners could be prudently used for other national development projects”.
For his part, the Eastern Regional Supervising High Court Judge, Mr Justice Gbie S. Suurbaareh, expressed worry over the lack of accommodation for judges and staff of the Judiciary, as well as the deplorable state of some of the district courts in the region.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to help address the problems to enable the judicial staff to effectively and efficiently ensure prompt administration of justice in the region.