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UK based Ghanaian lawyer seeks to sue
J. J. Rawlings
March 26, Ghanadot - Miss Georgette Dede Djaba,
London, UK, based lawyer seeks justice in the UK courts for
alleged wrongful death of three Ghanaian judges and others
which occurred during the era of the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the PNDC revolutions.
She is joined as claimant by others, namely her father,
Henry Djaba (snr), Hans Djaba, Henry Djaba (jnr), and
Kwabena Agyepong, currently running as a presidential
candidate in Ghana.
The news was released to Ghanadot today in the form of a
copy of “INSTRUCTIONS TO COUNSEL” which she had apparently
sent to her lawyers.
Georgette Djaba is a prominent
civic figure in the Ghanaian community in the UK. In
addition to being a lawyer, she also the chairperson for a
voluntary group, Family Resolution, an organization that
helps to promote proper parenting skills so as to stop
anti-social behaviour among kids in Islington.
In her instructions to her counsel, Ms. Djaba accused Flt.
Lt. Rawlings of criminal offences and torture “including
Abuse of human rights of a significant nature.”
She noted that the military coup that brought Rawlings and
the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) to power in
1979 also led to the killing of three former military heads
of state and five other senior members of the Armed Forces
in Ghana. These officials were executed by firing squad live
on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) TV broadcast, and
that they were all executed without fair trial or rights of
appeal in contravention of all international standards for
fair trial.
She also claimed that “J. J. Rawlings further ordered the
brutal murders of three Ghanaian High Court Judges, namely
Justice Koranteng-Addo, Justice Agyepong and Justice
Sarkodie.
Ms Djaba is seeking justice in the following manner; that
exp-president Jerry John Rawlings be stripped of his
immunity from prosecution and that “he be prosecuted for
human rights abuses, mass murders, causing death, suffering,
deprivation, causing death by firing squad in 1979 of 3
former heads of state of Ghana, including General Akwasi
Amankwaa Afrifa, General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, General
F. W. K Akuffo and an order for Rawlings to be arrested and
be prosecuted whilst present in the UK.”
Ms. Georgette Djaba is also a grand niece of General Akwasi
Amankwaa Afrifa. She cites precedence in Pinochet rulings
and his consequent loss of immunity as grounds for the
prosecution of her case in the UK.
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