Special Prosecutor Responds To High Court’s Injunction Over Charles Bissue

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has asserted that it possesses the authority to arrest suspects of interest without a warrant.

The OSP clarified its position on Twitter shortly after a Human Rights Court granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the Special Prosecutor or its assigns from arresting Charles Bissue.

“The general public is advised, that in the exercise of its police powers, the Office of the Special Prosecutor can arrest without a warrant, any person it reasonably suspects of having committed corruption or corruption-related offenses.”

Following an application by Charles Bissue’s lawyers, the Human Rights Court presided over by Justice Nicholas Abodakpi, issued an interim injunction restraining the Office of the Special Prosecutor or its agents from executing the purported arrest warrant against Bissue.

The court also prohibited the Special Prosecutor from seeking further arrest warrants and publishing notices suggesting that the applicant is wanted, pending the determination of the substantive matter.

The injunction will remain in effect for 10 days, and the case has been adjourned until June 22, 2023.

This comes after Special Prosecutor declared Charles Bissue, the former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), as a wanted individual.

The declaration followed Mr Bissue’s failure to respond to an invitation from the Special Prosecutor to appear and provide answers related to the ongoing investigation into suspected corruption within the dissolved IMCIM

Court Order

The Human Rights Court 2 in Accra slapped an interim injunction on the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and its agents or assigns from executing the arrest warrant issued for former Presidential Staffer Charles Cromwell Onuawonto Bissue.

The warrant was issued on Tuesday, June 13 following refusal by lawyers of the former Secretary to the the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) to honour OSP’s invitation.

Charles Bissue, a former Western Region Secretary for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), had gone to court to demand documents backing the OSP’s invitation to him over the investigations of corruption and corruption-related activities on illegal mining.

Nonetheless, the OSP issued the arrest warrant.

“If you have an information concerning this person, please contact the Office of the Special Prosecutor,” it said in a notice posted on its website on Tuesday, June 13.

But Justice Nicholas MC Abodakpi of the Human Rights Court 2 following an application by the lawyers of Charles Bissue on Thursday, June 15 made an order for interim injunction, restraining the OSP from, inter alia, publishing notices purporting that Mr Bissue is wanted.

This is to be in force pending the determination of the substantive matter.

The case was adjourned to Thursday, June 22.