Following the landmark court decision that sentenced Sedina Tamakloe to 10 years in prison, the government is seeking to have her extradited to face her punishment. However, a few things may stand in Ghana’s way that will prevent the country from accessing the former MASLOC Chief Executive.
Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu raised those concerns during an interview on TV3 on Tuesday night. He said there have been instances where countries refused extradition requests from Ghana for certain reasons.
According to Martin Kpebu, the nature of the country’s prisons could pose a threat to the extradition as that is factor much considered before a person is extradited.
“I understand the judge has made that order which is that she would be found, and the government is going to attempt to get her extradited back to Ghana from wherever she is. Our laws allow for extradition and extradition is backed by international law,” he explained.
However, “there are certain conditions including that, you are not bringing her to torture her. In Ghana, we don’t even carry out the death penalty and even now the law has been amended. So those grounds on which another country can refuse to extradite here have been narrowed,” Kpebu noted.
According to Kpebu, the difficulty Ghana may face is the “prison conditions. INTERPOL will do their bit so that they will spread it all over the world…asking for her to be extradited to Ghana. But one of the key things we will be facing is the prison conditions in Ghana,” he emphasized.
Adding, “I am aware in the past certain countries have refused to extradite persons to Ghana because of our very inhuman prison conditions. So that is the biggest challenge we will have when it comes to extradition but a lot of countries do extradite persons back to Ghana.”
Sedina Tamakloe, together with the former Director of Operations Daniel Axim was found guilty by the court on 78 counts related to stealing, conspiracy to steal, contravening public procurement laws and money laundering.
They will serve 10 and 5 years jail terms respectively. Daniel Axim testified in person but did not call any witnesses. But Sedina Tamakloe was tried in absentia after she failed to return to the country after taking person to travel for medical checkup.