According to private legal practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini says, “Rape attracts between 5 to 25 years (prison sentence on conviction). A District Court has jurisdiction in criminal matters only to the extent that the punishment for the offence does not exceed 2 years.”
Therefore, the Kaneshie District Magistrates’ Court was the wrong forum for the police to have sent the entertainment icon.
Mr. Anyenini says lawyers of KKD ought to have gotten the case thrown out, even if temporarily, on account of that blunder by the police. And one of the lawyers, Nana Asante Bediatuo, agrees. He said “Upon further reflection, it was the wrong forum.”
Samson Lardy Anyenini is claiming the Magistrate Court KKD was taken to in Ghana was a WRONG Court—and as such, his lawyer should have argued to get the case thrown out.
I am not sure what his argument really is but he says because a rape attracts 5-25 years sentence which obviously a Magistrate Court cannot hand down such a sentence, the initial hearing should not have been taken there…
Of course this is wrong where I studied law and currently live—I mean in the UK and I would be shocked if Ghana’s system is any different from that of the UK.
In the UK, virtually every criminal case starts from the Magistrate Court even though the Magistrate Court has the power to sentence to a maximum of 6 months (the other UK law graduates or scholars should correct me on this if the length has changed per the sentencing guidelines).
What happens in UK which I believe is also the case in Ghana is that; cases which may attract more than 6 months sentences such as murder, rape and others still start in the Magistrate Court. If it’s indictable-only, the magistrates’ court will generally decide whether to grant bail, consider other legal issues such as reporting restrictions, and then pass the case on to the Crown Court.