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Ghana

Court pulls the rug from under anti-corruption drive

A High Court ruling has effectively stripped the Office of the Special Prosecutor of its independence, giving President Mahama’s Attorney-General decisive control

Ghana's seven-year experiment with an independent anti-corruption prosecutor is unravelling. On 15 April, the High Court in Accra ruled that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) could not initiate criminal proceedings without prior authorisation from the Attorney-General, calling for all current OSP cases to be transferred to the Attorney-General's department. The ruling, which also awarded 15,000 cedis (US$1,355) in costs against the OSP, emerged in a case brought by a customs official the OSP had prosecuted over under-the-counter sales of ten containers of Thai rice. But its implications reach much further.

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