Ghanaian Justice is so Unfair

This morning we went to the high court. Don't worry, none of my volunteers had got into trouble, we were just there to learn about the justice system.

It was a big room on the first floor (significant, as nearly every other building here is a bungalow). There was the Ghanaian crest above the judge’s chair mounted on a pink statement wall. Whereas visitors to the English high courts can expect to see a fraction of one case, quite amazingly we were treated to 10 cases in an hour.

Case 1: there was no lawyer and so the hearing was adjourned.

Case 2: this involved a chief. It was speculated that he was probably sewing someone over land rights. He was a marvellously fat man and looked as though someone with a tremendous budget has decided to dress as Genghis Khan. He had a blue hat, looking a bit like a footstool, a poncho, and boots that were leather on the inside and felt with stars on the outside, creating the impression from the majority of angles that his shoes didn’t match. Anyway, his lawyer was allegedly running late and so his case was postponed.

Case 3: The lawyer was present and he secured a postponement. Clever man.

Case 4: The plaintive was absent. Case postponed.

Case 5: A land dispute of some sort. “Where are your lawyers?” that classic question was addressed generally to everyone involved, “Our lawyer is in Accra” apparently they’re not feeling well. The other side’s lawyer made a similar excuse. Case adjourned.

Case 6: “The defendants are outside please I just saw them”. Without ever finding the defendants the discussion seemed to be continuing, but not in English (the official language of the court). I couldn’t quite work out what was going on. The judge and lawyers were talking together. Could it be that the people involved in the case were not to be separated from the audience and it was already happening? It’s certainly possible. It was initially hard to tell because they have air conditioning and ceiling fans making noise in the room as well as the windows open letting in noise from outside (it was an environmentalist's nightmare, but let's not dwell on that). I couldn’t actually hear clearly. But anyway, it seemed that the lawyers successfully secured an adjournment. On to case 7!

Case 7: “Where are your lawyers?” That favourite question rang out. “Please my lawyer says he has family commitments” and “Please my lawyer will not be present today. He says the case has already been adjourned by the court of appeal to 9^th November” What is this?! A Pre-adjourned case?! Someone else seems to be doing the work of the high court…

Case 8: I couldn’t work out what was going on here. The defendant has dropped the case? If you say so…

I began to think that it might save everyone a lot of time if we simply opened by asking if there were any lawyers on the premises and then if they could identify their clients. We could then proceed by hearing the cases of any lawyer who can claim a client. On the benches with the other volunteers, we were all starting to look at each other and wonder aloud (very quietly) what made lawyers turn up to court in the UK, I mean no one forces them to turn up, but I’m fairly sure that their reputation and that of their company requires it.

Case 9: Plaintive absent. Case adjourned.

Now I understand why people resort to ‘instant justice’ (i.e. catching someone red handed and setting them on fire) it’s much more timely.

Case 10: This seemed a bit more exciting because a prisoner was brought in with police guards. They called him ‘Yevu’ (white man) which seemed a bit unprofessional. He wasn’t wearing prison-esque clothes but green ‘Ghana print’. My initial assessment that this might be a more interesting case turned out to be right as this, it transpired, was a murder trial! Are the lawyers present? No? Oh well, said the judge, I’ve already written my statement and I’m going to read it anyway. The judge declared that there was absolutely no solid evidence against the man, so they couldn’t try him properly anyway. Apparently he had been seen arguing with the deceased over land shortly before the deceased was found to be dead in the bushes with a rope around his neck.  The judge seemed to think that suicide hadn’t yet been ruled out as a cause of death and so it was far from clear that there was any need to look for a murderer. Apparently this had occurred in March 2015 and the trial had already been adjourned several times, hence it’s lack of progress. This upset me because it means that a potentially innocent man had been held in jail for well over a year. Possibly the judge was thinking the same thing, as he told the man that he could have bail as long as 3 people would vouch for him that he wouldn’t run away. One of these 3 people had to have assets worth 50,000GHC (£10,000) that could be seized in the event that he failed to report to the police station to check in every Tuesday. I felt it unlikely that this poor accused gentleman could find 3 such people. After all, he was a foreigner, from across the border in Togo (where they speak French as a first language and white people are common). He wasn’t likely to have 3 wealthy Ghanaian friends, at least not to the tune of 50,000GHC.

I spoke to the judge afterwards and am very happy to say that he told me if this did turn out to be the case that he would change the terms of bail.

Actually it wasn’t just me that spoke to the judge, all of us crowded into his little office (air conditioned with the windows open as standard). We were invited to ask all we wanted, I recognise this as a rare privilege. I can’t imagine it happening in the UK (but then I can’t imagine any judge managing to clear their schedule of 10 cases in little over an hour either so this man did have time on his side).

He answered a lot of questions for us and also ranted about how corruption in the system meant that people who didn’t pay the right kind of lip service could be moved from courts in Accra (the capital) to less prestigious places. Since he himself had moved from the courts of Accra to be a judge here in Ho just earlier this month, I wondered if this complaint may be based on personal experience (but I didn’t dare ask!) He considered this to be quite corrupt.  Just as he said that sums of money went missing from court budgets so, for instance, there was to be money for buying computers for the courts in Accra, but it later transpired the purchasers bought second hand refurbished computers which were cheap and broke quickly. This, he explained, was why he was writing everything down himself long hand in the court room. Similarly, he said that his bungalow (provided by the legal system) was supposed to have running water, but it didn’t and if he wanted anything done he had to do it himself. Likewise, he pointed at the tomes on the bookshelf, and I could see that they were encyclopedias dated to the 1970s, the legal library wasn’t up to standard and he had to buy reference books himself. He has therefore created a little library at home at personal expense. Not only that but they couldn’t even put a lightbulb in his room, because the money wasn’t there, and so he had to open the curtains to get light. I couldn’t help but think that, while frustrating, these complaints paled into utter insignificance alongside the probably-innocent Togolese man we’d just witnessed who had been imprisoned for over a year because no evidence could be gathered to try him for murder. Now that’s something worth complaining about.

I asked (after spending a considerable amount of time working out how to tactfully phrase it) what he could do when someone offered him a bribe. Could he have that person arrested? Yes, said the judge, he could have the person arrested and people certainly had offered him bribes before. However, judges don’t like to attract too much attention to themselves, they don’t want to get misreported in the media and so for that reason, to protect themselves, all judges prefer to handle these things quietly and not to press charges. Hmmmmmm, I thought, and kept smiling. This man was quite charming but I feel like fear of media portrayal isn’t a good enough reason for judges to keep quiet…I can only conclude that legal libraries don’t furnish themselves!

I think, if you had a grudge against someone here, you could just accuse them of murder. It would be very simple; you wouldn’t need any real evidence. Safe in the knowledge that your victim would then be arrested, imprisoned for maybe a couple of years, and then if there was a court case to follow it would take years and even if they got bail your victim’s life would at best be restricted the conditions of it which would involve reporting to the local police station every Tuesday. I’ve made a mental note not to upset anyone!