Chief Justice Torkornoo decries alleged mistreatment by inquiry committee
Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo has condemned the treatment she received from the Committee of Inquiry investigating her.
Her concerns were outlined in a three-page supplementary affidavit filed at the Supreme Court in support of her motion for an interlocutory injunction.
On May 21, 2025, she filed an application for injunction, seeking relief against her removal from office.
She urged the apex court to address what she described as “a complete desecration of my basic constitutional rights to a fair trial, violation of my dignity and subjection to inhuman and degrading treatment of a kind not meted out to even accused persons on trial for treason and other offences against the state.”
According to her counsel, Kwabena Adu-Kusi, proceedings of the Presidential Committee examining three petitions against her were adjourned to May 22, 2025.
On that date, Justice Torkornoo appeared before the committee with her lawyers regarding the case she had filed at the Supreme Court against the Attorney-General and committee members.
Despite the legal processes, she stated that on May 23, 2025, the committee proceeded with its inquiry.
She said that she had not been informed of the grounds for the prima facie case against her or the specific allegations, preventing her from properly preparing a defence.
Justice Torkornoo recalled that on May 15, 2025, the committee refused to recognise her counsel because she was not personally present, yet scheduled dates for further hearings.
“That the committee on the said 23rd May, 2025, contrary to known rules regulating proceedings of the committee/Commissions of inquiry, indicated that the petitioner shall not give evidence themselves but shall be calling other witnesses to give evidence to support their petition,” she stated.
She described this as “completely offensive to known rules of procedure,” arguing that petitioners or complainants, upon formal appearance, are merely witnesses subject to cross-examination.
The Chief Justice cited other irregularities, including denial of access to the hearing room for her husband and children, body searches, and restriction of access to phones and laptops for herself and her lawyers, while petitioners’ counsel retained their devices.
According to her, the venue of the hearing, a high-security facility at the Castle, Osu, was a deliberate attempt to subject her to mental torture and degrading treatment, violating her fundamental rights.
Justice Torkornoo argued that previous Article 146 proceedings had always been held in a judicial facility, specifically at the Courts Complex, and said the current location “boggles the mind.”
She insisted that the continuous violation of her constitutional rights made the entire inquiry a “mockery of justice and a ruse to unjustifiably remove me from office as the Chief Justice.”
She urged the Supreme Court to intervene by granting an injunction to prevent the assault on judicial independence and protect the tenure of the Chief Justice and Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature.
GNA
