Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) has begun in earnest.
There has recently been a hue and cry by the citizenry, clamouring for the extradition of the former Finance Minister of the erstwhile NPP government, to face trial for alleged criminal acts perpetrated during his incumbency.
The ‘noise’ calling for the extradition of Ken Ofori-Atta, the man most remembered for his immaculate white clothes and a penchant for employing biblical quotations in his ‘sermons’ to parliament when delivering budget statements, has been gaining momentum reaching a crescendo in the past week with a dramatic warning from my own friend, Martin Kpebu, citizen vigilante par excellence, to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Per a news report monitored on TV 3, Martin is said to have made this remark, “If by the 14th of this month, Ofori-Atta has not been put before a court so that his assets can be frozen, I’ll be the first person to present a petition for the OSP’s removal.”
For the benefit of some of our readers not versed in criminal terminology, permit me to explore the meaning of one of the weapons in the arsenal of prosecutors when chasing fugitive criminals.
Normally, a person who has committed or is alleged to have committed an offence is charged and prosecuted in the country where the crime or alleged crime was committed.
However, this may not be possible if the alleged offender is outside the country’s jurisdiction and is unwilling to return voluntarily to undergo trial.
Extradition is the delivery of an accused or convicted individual from the state in whose territory he happens to be, to the state in whose territory he is alleged to have committed or have been convicted of a crime.
Procedure
Over the years, the extradition procedure has been used by various countries to request the handover of persons deemed to have committed criminal offences for formal prosecution.
In the aftermath of World War II, many officials of the Nazi regime were extradited to Germany for trial.
In recent times, perhaps one notable extradition was that of General Pinochet from the UK to Chile to face charges relating to genocide.
The extradition of the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, also comes to mind.
In extradition requests, the state asking for the extradition is referred to as the ‘Requesting State’ while the state where the alleged offender is currently residing is referred to as the ‘Requested State’.
Conditions
There are strict conditions under which an extradition request can be made.
The first condition is what is designated as ‘double criminality’. Under this condition, the alleged crime has to be a crime in both the requesting and requested states.
Also, the alleged crime has to attract a substantial period of imprisonment, usually two years and over.
Further, the alleged crime must be apolitical. Also, the punishment for the alleged crime must not attract the death penalty.
In cases where the requesting state has the death penalty on its books but the requested state has abolished it, special guarantees have to be made by the requesting state.
Normally, extradition is governed by an extradition treaty between the countries or by the national laws of the requesting country.
The official extradition request has to go by a special format.
The requesting dossier must include the following: a concise description of the alleged offender in terms of identity, name, special features; purpose of the extradition request; specific offences and a detailed statement of facts.
There also has to be a judicial process where a court or a magistrate will review the extradition request to ascertain whether the conditions requisite for extradition exist.
In light of the foregoing conditions relative to the extradition process, is the clamour for Ken Ofori-Atta's extradition realistic in the immediate short term?
I am not privy to the current state of the dossier on ‘Mr Bible Quotations’, but any such extradition request must include the specific offences he is deemed to have committed, with a detailed statement of the facts, amongst the other conditions already alluded to above.
If the dossier fulfils this requirement, then the extradition request can be made.
Whatever the state of the dossier, it is abundantly clear, judging from the content and tone of the demands for his extradition, that Ghanaians are very interested in the process, and it is expected that the OSP and the Attorney General’s Department do everything within their remit to get the process underway.
The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: georgebshaw1@gmail.com
