Ghana president pardons journalist, 2 radio panelists

By Umaru Sanda Amadu

ACCRA, Ghana (AA) - President John Mahama pardoned a journalist and two radio panelists Monday who had been jailed for allegedly threatening the lives of Supreme Court judges.

The Supreme Court had jailed the three for four months in July after finding them guilty of threatening to kill judges during a radio show.

In a statement issued Monday, the government in capital Accra, however, announced the president had “remitted the remaining prison sentence imposed on the three persons: Salifu Maase, Alistair Nelson and Ako Gunn.”

The three men were also fined around $2,500 dollars each, which they have since paid.

The jailing of the three men had been largely condemned by members of the governing National Democratic Congress party. Several ministers of state had signed a petition, urging the president to release them under his prerogative of mercy.

In June, one of the panelists was heard saying on Accra-based Montie FM: “I know where the judges live in Accra …When we finish them, then it will be over,"

The verbal threat came at a time when the court was hearing a crucial case about Ghana's voter register for the keenly contested 2016 election.

In sentencing the trio in Accra on July 27, presiding Judge Sophia Akufo said the three “willfully attacked the chief justice and lowered the authority of the court.” She observed the comments were reminiscent of the gruesome murder of three high court judges in the country some 30 years ago.