103/93 : Alhassan Abubakar / Ghana
Summary of Facts
1. Alhassan Abubakar is a Ghanaian citizen, presently residing in Côte d’Ivoire. He was arrested on
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16 June 1985 for allegedly cooperating with political dissidents. He was detained without charge or
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trial for 7 years until his escape from a prison hospital on 19 February 1992.
2. After his escape, his sister and his wife, who had been visiting him, were arrested and held for two
weeks in an attempt to get information on the Complainant’s whereabouts. The Complainant’s brother
has informed him that the police have been given false information about his return, and have on
several occasions surrounded his house, searched it, and subsequently searched for him in his
mother’s village. In the early part of 1993 the UNHCR in Côte d’Ivoire informed the Complainant that
they had received a report on him from Ghana assuring that he was free to return without risk of being
prosecuted for fleeing from prison. The report further stated that all those detained for political reasons
had been released.
3. Complainant on the other hand holds that there is a law in Ghana which subjects escapees to
penalties from 6 months to 2 years imprisonment, regardless of whether the detention from which they
escaped was lawful or not.
Procedure
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4. The communication is dated 26 July 1993. The Complainant was sent a questionnaire concerning
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communications on 11 August 1993 and returned it completed. The Commission was seized at the
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14 Session and the communication was sent to the state concerned on 6 January 1994. No
response was forthcoming.
5. The Commission tried without success to resolve this communication amicably
Law
Admissibility
6. Article 56.5 of the Charter requires that all local remedies be exhausted before the Commission
can consider the communication, unless the procedure is unduly prolonged. In this case the
Complainant is residing outside the state against which the communication is addressed and thus
where the remedies would be available. He escaped to Côte d’Ivoire from prison in Ghana and has not
returned there. Considering the nature of the complaint it would not be logical to ask the Complainant
to go back to Ghana in order to seek a remedy from national legal authorities. Accordingly, the
Commission does not consider that local remedies are available for the Complainant.
7. As the communication fulfills all the other requirements Article 56, the Commission declares the
communication admissible.
Merits
8. Article 6 of the Charter reads:
Every individual shall have the right to liberty and security of his person. No one may be deprived of
his freedom except for reasons and conditions previously laid down by law. In particular, no one may
be arbitrarily arrested or detained.
9. The Complainant contends he was arrested by the Government for alleged collaboration with
dissidents to overthrow the administration. He was arrested under section 2 of the Preventive Custody
Law of 1992 (P.N.D.C.L. 4) in the interest of national security. However, the Complainant states he
was never charged with this offence nor brought to trial.