Off to Court

This week I went into the field for The Statesman Newspaper. It was pretty cool. We(co-worker Gilbert and I) went to Ghana's Fast Track High Court. We also walked around the court grounds to catch a glimpse of some of their other courts. We saw the Commerce Court, Supreme Court, a Circuit Court, and some others. Accra is the capital of Ghana and thus the home of their Judiciary. The vast majority of the nations lawyers and judges and courts are in this city. So I basically was able to see where most decisions are made.

The case we were there to write about was concerning 23 Liberian refugees that were detained by Ghanaian police. The police never allowed them to be tried for their offenses or talk to lawyers. Only one of them had spoken to anyone since being arrested 1-2 months ago and a group of lawyers was arguing that the police needed to allow the refugees to seek legal council.

We arrived a little late and missed the trial, but the judge ruled in favor of the refugees. We gathered our information from a group of reporters who had been to the case and all huddled around each other to discus their notes.

An interesting thing about their court system is that are still completely basing it off of the British system... right down to those powder white wigs. There are seasons designated for wigs and gowns and some where you don't need them. In the ones where you do need to wear the costumes, those who don't are legally considered naked and risk being held in contempt.

I think that's crazy. But oh well. If they like tradition...