Court adjourns summation and verdict in Kasoa ritual murder trial

The criminal division of the High Court, in Accra, has adjourned for the third time, the summation and possible verdict hearing of the trial of two teenage boys, charged for the 2021 murder of Ishmael Abdullah Mensah, an 11-year-old boy in Kasoa. The reason for the latest adjournment is the indefinite nationwide strike by jurors including the jury hearing the case. Significantly, the trial Judge, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, has remanded the second accused in the case to prison custody, after he was reported for disorderly behaviour on police remand.

The third adjournment follows two others with the previous one being May 7, where it was projected by the Court, for the summation of the case and the delivery of its verdict. The trial Judge, Justice Lydia Osei Marfu, on that sitting, said, she had taken notice of the filing of closing addresses by the parties and thereafter,  adjourned the case to Monday, June 24. However, when the case was called, the Court, once again announced the adjournment of the case to July 8, 2024, following the absence of the seven member jury hearing the case. Jurors declared an indefinite strike on May 16, for non-payment of their allowance for February 2023 and from July 2023 to May 2024.

The jurors were promised to have their 10 months allowance arrears paid in May, however, that has not been honoured. According to jurors, the situation has made it  impossible for them  to continue facilitating their transportation to and from court daily. Meanwhile the strike has affected indictable cases such as murder, rape, manslaughter cases which are supposed to be tried together with a jury. Cases presently affected by the strike include the trial of Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don Don, who is accused of killing JB Danquah-Adu, the then Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region; The Republic v. Gregory Afoko and Asabke Alangdi, who are accused of conspiracy and murder of the New Patriotic Party’s Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama in 2015.

Another case affected by the strike, is the trial of Richard Appiah, the man accused of  the alleged murder of two boys and whose body parts he stored in a refrigerator at Alaska, a suburb of Abesim near Sunyani in the Bono Region. The  case of two boys accused of killing an 11-year-old boy, Ishmael Abdallah, at Kasoa in April 2021, also suffers the same fate, as it has once adjourned to July next month. As to whether, the striking jurors, would be back to work by the next date, is left, to decision makers.

This is the first time the jurors are striking over unpaid allowances this year, after a timely intervention by a Supreme Court judge, who was sitting as an additional High Court judge, prevented a similar decision by the Jurors  in 2023.