Minister of Education Haruna Iddrisu has criticised the courts, the Ghana Police Service and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over what he described as abuses in the handling of bail for accused persons.
According to him, some state institutions have been using bail conditions as a form of punishment, which he said is against the law.
“We have seen excesses, excesses from the police, excesses from the courts, and excesses from EOCO, where persons are denied bail and bail is used as punishment for accused persons,” he said.
Haruna Iddrisu stated that denying bail or imposing excessively harsh bail conditions on accused persons is unlawful.
“That is not the law. It is settled knowledge and settled law that you do not deny an accused person bail or impose excessively burdensome bail conditions,” he added.
The minister further argued that the Constitution guarantees the right to a fair trial and presumes every accused person innocent until proven guilty.
“If you uphold the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence, then every person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he stated.
He also called for an end to what he described as “high-handedness and excessiveness” in matters relating to bail and pre-trial treatment of accused persons.
“So, I expect that in Ghana today, we must end the high-handedness and excessiveness in matters relating to bail, the denial of bail, and related conditions,” he said.
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