The two teenagers charged for the murder of 10-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdullah at Kasoa, will no longer face jury trial due to their ages, an Accra High Court has said.
Initially, the Court was supposed to empanel a jury to hear the matter of the accused persons and if found guilty, they would face a three-year jail term.
The two accused persons a 15-year-old minor and an 18-year-old young teenager per the Juvenile Justice Act, could not be tried as adults.
The Court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo said, before today, “I had stated we were going to empanel the jury but looking at the ages of the accused persons and considering the Act, it may not be necessary to have them tried by jury.”
The Juvenile Justice Act, 2003, Act 653 defines a juvenile offender as someone between the ages of 12 and 18 who commits a crime.
“The oldest amongst them is still a young offender under the Juvenile Justice Act.” Justice Osei Marfo said.
The accused persons, if found culpable, are likely to be sentenced to a maximum of three years under the Juvenile Justice Act.
A juvenile offender under the age of eighteen years shall be detained in a junior correctional centre, while a young offender above the age of eighteen years shall be detained in a senior correctional centre.
A juvenile offender under the age of fifteen years, who has been convicted of a serious offence shall be detained in a senior correctional centre.
Per the law, the trial should be conducted within six months.
The Court then adjourned the matter to May 26, 2022, to enable the Court set out the parameters for the trial of the accused persons, which would be done summarily.
The teenager is standing trial with another minor for causing the death of Ishmael.
The two accused persons were committed by a Kaneshie District Court to stand trial at the High Court over the death of the 10-year-old boy who they allegedly lured into an uncompleted building and killed.
GNA
