The request which was made by a campaign group Human Rights Watch and Trial International is led by an American lawyer, Reed Broody, Ghanaian media reported.
The government of Ghana has on Sunday directed its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General’s (AG) Department to study a request asking for the extradition of Yahya Jammeh to Ghana over the killing of some 44 Ghanaians in Gambia.
The request which was made by a campaign group Human Rights Watch and Trial International is led by an American lawyer, Reed Broody.
Mr Broody is the lawyer for Martin Kyere; the only known survivor out of 56 West Africans – most of them Ghanaian and Nigerian – who were murdered in The Gambia on or around 22 July 2005.
A statement issued and signed by the Minister of Information, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the AG’s Department have been tasked to explore the full extent of the legal and diplomatic implications of the request and advise government on the way forward.
“Government wishes to inform the Ghanaian people that it is studying the request by Human Rights Watch and Trial International to ask for the extradition to, and trial of Yahaya Jammeh in Ghana.
“Government has been informed that Human Rights Watch in collaboration with Trial International and led by an America lawyer, Reed Brody have unearthed fresh evidence, which they believe ties the former Gambian President, Yahaya Jammeh to the killing of 44 Ghanaians, on or about the 22nd of July 2005,” the statement said.
Dr Hamid noted that the request has both legal and international diplomatic implications; thus, government shall make public its decision in respect of the matter as soon as it receives the reports.
He, therefore, urged the families of those who lost their lives and the Ghanaian population, to exercise restraint as it seeks good counsel on the matter.