Professor Ken Attafuah, a criminologist and human rights lawyer, has described as barbaric the actions of a chief who flogged a teacher for allegedly smoking Indian Hemp, popularly known as ‘wee’.
Francis Kattah, a french teacher at a school in Ejisu Besiase in the Ashanti Region, was taken to the chief’s house at gun point on suspicion that he had smoked ‘wee’ with students. He was reportedly given 25 lashes at his back by the chief.
In an interview with Joy New, Francis said he had filed a complaint with the police who said the case would be sent to court on Thursday.
Prof Ken Attafuah, speaking to Dzifa Bampoe on Top Story Tuesday, could not hide his disgust about the incident, saying: “I am so dismayed listening to Francis recount the ordeal that he suffered at the hands of the chief.”
“This is simply barbaric, this is a medieval conduct and it has no place in a republican democracy.”
The lawyer added that though chiefs have a major role to play in maintaining law and order, especially in areas where the state has very minimal presence, they cannot take the law into their own hands and perpetuate injustice.
“What happened was not discipline by any means. It was an instance of torture.
“Everything that was said and done was to denigrate this man, to inflict severe pain and suffering to his mind as well as on his body,” Prof Attafuah maintained.
He however noted that the teacher could file a complaint of human rights violation with the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) or go to the High Court to file a case of human rights violations.
Alternatively, the lawyer said, the chief could at minimum be charged with aggravated assault in terms of the criminal law.
Prof Attafuah bemoaned the situation in Ghana where people relied heavily on impressionistic evidence instead of empirical evidence, insisting that “impressionistic evidence has no place in our criminal jurisprudence.”
Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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