Ghana’s legal system provides clear guidelines on the conditions under which individuals may be granted bail or remanded into custody, ensuring a balance between the rights of the accused and maintaining law and order.
Recent developments surrounding the Democracy Hub protest, aimed at ending illegal mining (galamsey), have sparked discussions on this issue after 50 demonstrators, including 11 who appeared before the Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday, were remanded into police custody.
The demonstrators face charges ranging from conspiracy to commit a crime, unlawful assembly, causing unlawful damage, offensive conduct conducive to the breach of peace, and assault on a public officer. Despite pleading not guilty, the court remanded them, prompting concerns from various groups, including former President John Dramani Mahama, who described the two-week remand as an abuse of their rights.
An Associate Professor at the School of Law, University of Ghana, Professor Kwadwo Appiagyei-Tuah has mentioned key issues such as the reasons for the arrests, the transfer of protesters between prisons without notifying their families or lawyers, and the fact that some were brought to court without any formal charges, saying that these are critical human rights issues that touch on the dignity of the individual.
This, he questioned the nature of the offense that would warrant the denial of bail to the arrested protesters.
The situation has reignited the debate over the balance between remand, bail, and the protection of civil liberties, especially in cases involving peaceful protests.
Ghana’s laws on bail and remand are central to these conversations, with the legal framework designed to prevent excessive detention while ensuring that justice is served.
Section 96 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 Act 30, which tackles the concerns provides:
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a court may grant bail to any person who appears or is brought before it on any process or after being arrested without warrant, and who
(a) is prepared at any time or at any stage of the proceedings or after conviction pending an appeal to give bail, and
(b) enters into a bond in the manner hereinafter provided, with or without a surety or sureties, conditioned for his appearance before that court or some other court at a time and place mentioned in the bond.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of this section or 15, but subject to the following provisions of this section the High Court or a Circuit Court may in any case direct that any person be admitted to bail or that the bail required by a District Court or police officer be reduced.
(3) The amount and conditions of bail shall be fixed with due regard to the circumstances of the case and shall not be excessive or harsh.
(4) A court shall not withhold or withdraw bail merely as a punishment.
(5) A court shall refuse to grant bail if it is satisfied that the defendant
(a) may not appear to stand trial; or
(b) may interfere with any witness or evidence, or in any way hamper police investigations; or
(c) may commit a further offence when on bail; or
(d) is charged with an offence punishable by imprisonment exceeding six months which is alleged to have been committed while he was on bail.
(6) In considering whether it is likely that the defendant may not appear to stand trial the court shall take into account the following consideration:
(a) the nature of the accusation;
(b) the nature of the evidence in support of the accusation; (c) the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail;
(d) whether the defendant, having been released on bail on any previous occasion, has wilfully failed to comply with the conditions of any recognisance entered into by him on that occasion;
(e) whether or not the defendant has a fixed place of abode in Ghana, and is gainfully employed; (f) whether the sureties are independent, of good character, and of sufficient means.
(7) A court shall refuse to grant bail –
(a) in a case of treason, subversion, murder, robbery, hijacking, piracy or escape from lawful custody, or
(b) where a person is being held for extradition to a foreign country.
Criminal_Procedure_Code_1960-1