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The former finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has taken legal action against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Special Prosecutor himself, Kissi Agyebeng, challenging their collective decision to declare him a “wanted person” and a “fugitive from justice”.
In an originating motion filed on notice on Thursday (13 March 2025) by his lawyer Justice Kusi Minkah-Premo at the Human Rights High Court, Ofori-Atta argues that the OSP and the Special Prosecutor overstepped legal boundaries by using a media briefing to respond to his lawyers’ official correspondence and by labelling him a “wanted person” and a “fugitive from justice” during the said press conference.
Ofori-Atta contends that the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Special Prosecutor lack the statutory authority to make such declarations without a court order and that the actions by the OSP and the Special Prosecutor constitute a violation of his fundamental rights.
Declarations prayed for
To this end, Ofori-Atta is praying the court for several declarations and orders. The measures he is seeking aim to establish that:
a. The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has no statutory powers to use a media briefing to declare a person WANTED or “fugitive from justice”.
b. The OSP has no powers other than what is provided for the police to declare a person wanted and same cannot be done without leave of the court.
c. The Office of the Special Prosecutor, in exercising the powers of the police as provided for under Section 28 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act 2017 (Act 959) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations 2018 (LI 2374), is bound by the limits placed on the exercise of discretionary power as enshrined in the Service Instructions of the Police Service, under Article 200 and consistent with Article 296 of the Constitution 1992.
d. The unlawful declaration of the applicant as “WANTED” or “fugitive from justice” constitutes a violation of his right of personal liberty as enshrined in Article 14 of the 1992 constitution; and right of free movement enshrined in Article 21 of the 1992 constitution; Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); as well as Article 12 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (AfCHPR).
e. Any act of the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a state agency that violates the applicant’s human rights will amount to a breach of Ghana’s international treaty obligations under the African Charter on Human and
People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The motion for Ofori-Atta is also seeking further declarations that: “The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, Esq, as a lawyer was in breach of Article 23 when he responded to the letter of the solicitors of the applicant by media briefing, contrary to Rules 8 and 12 of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules 2020 (LI 2423).”
Second, “… the OSP did not act fairly and reasonably and was in breach of Article 23 of the 1992 constitution when through the Special Prosecutor it sought to change the contents of its letter of 24 January 2025 to the
applicant by media briefing”.
Third, “The OSP has acted unfairly and capriciously when it continued keeping the applicant’s picture as a WANTED PERSON on its website, contrary to its publication by a PRESS RELEASE dated 18 February 2025 under the hand of the Special Prosecutor that the applicant ceased to be a WANTED PERSON.”
Orders sought by Ofori-Atta
By way of orders, the former finance minister is praying the court to order “the immediate removal of his photograph and details of the applicant from the WANTED LIST on the website of the OSP”.
He further seeks: “Order for payment of compensation for: (i) unlawfully declaring the Applicant WANTED, (ii) unlawful publication on the OSP’s website that the applicant is a WANTED person and (iii) keeping the applicant’s photograph and details on its website as a WANTED PERSON contrary to the contents of its letter of 18 February 2025 to the applicant.”
Also sought are an: “Order directing the Office of the Special Prosecutor to respond by letter as required by law to all the letters of the applicant’s solicitor that remain outstanding;
“Further order directing the OSP to list documents that it may require from the applicant for investigations and serve same on the solicitors of the applicant for them to furnish same pending the return of the applicant
into the jurisdiction;
“Order of injunction restraining the Office of the Special Prosecutor from carrying out its threat in the press release issued on 18 February 2025, of repeating the unlawful re-entering of the applicant’s name as a Wanted Person or declaring him a ‘fugitive from justice’.”
Background
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), in a letter dated Tuesday 31 January 2025, invited Ken Ofori-Atta to attend an in-person meeting at the OSP’s office on Monday 10 February 2025. The letter was left at the security post of Ofori-Atta’s residence in Labone, Accra.
Ofori-Atta’s absence from Ghana and inability to honour the Special Prosecutor’s invitation on health grounds caused his lawyers, Minkah-Premo, Osei-Bonsu, Bruce-Cathline & Partners, to write to the OSP on 7 February 2025 to inform him of his absence and to convey his willingness to assist the ongoing investigations with any information they may require.
The OSP, through Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, on Tuesday 12 February 2025, two days after the date of its invitation to Ken Ofori-Atta had expired, addressed a press conference and declared Ken Ofori-Atta a “fugitive from justice”. The OSP further labelled Ofori-Atta a “wanted person” and published the same on its website on 13 February 2025.
The OSP took this route because the correspondence he received from the lawyers acting for and on behalf of Ken Ofori-Atta did not provide him with definite timelines for Ofori-Atta’s return to Ghana, he said. The OSP also declared that Ofori-Atta was not willing to return to Ghana to face justice.
Through the exchange of further letters between Ofori-Atta’s lawyers and the OSP, the “Wanted Person” and “Fugitive from Justice” tags were removed on Tuesday 18 February 2025. On the same day, the OSP also announced that it had revised the date for its in-person meeting with Ofori-Atta to Monday 2 June 2025.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
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