The Supreme Court has ordered the government to sent the agreement that admitted two former detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison to parliament for ratification. The detainees should be sent back to the United States if this is not done within the next three months.
The Apex court ruled on Thursday that the agreement signed by former President John Mahama's government with the United States to accept two Guantanamo Bay detainees into the country was unconstitutional.
The two detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, from Yemen were admitted into the country in 2016.
The arrival sparked a public debate as negotiations on the admission of the two, who had been detained for 14 years by the US government over their links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, were shrouded in secrecy. It also emerged an assessments by the United States said the two were dangerous and posed a threat to the national security of the superpower.
Although the United States Embassy in Ghana, assured, the two men posed no threat to Ghana , two private citizens Henry Nana Boakye and Margaret Bamful, who felt the then President Mahama had breached Article 75 of the 1992 constitution by not sending the agreement to Parliament for ratification, filed a suit at the Supreme Court.
At its sitting on Thursday, the seven-member panel chaired by newly sworn Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, upheld the claim of the petitioners.
In a majority decision which had only Justice William Atuguba dissenting, the Court stated that though the president is mandated to enter into international agreements on behalf of the country, he or she is enjoined to ratify such agreements in Parliament which was not done in this matter, hence the decision.