Controversy over arrest of retired US General

Page 3: Daily Graphic, September 17, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE arrest of a 72-year-old retired General of the United States Air Force for allegedly recording two naked women in his hotel room has stirred controversy within the police service over the real motive behind the arrest.
Before his arrest, General James Kellim had lodged a complaint against a businesswoman based in Accra, Patience Boateng, who is being prosecuted for defrauding the general of more than $50,000. And the arrest has raised suspicion within the service that it could be a ploy by some individuals to torpedo the prosecution.
Subsequently, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), DCOP Frank Adu-Poku, has ordered the release of Gen Kellim from the police cells because he suspected foul play in the matter.
General James Kellim was arrested by the police last Tuesday but the action sparked controversy and anger within the service to the effect that it was intended to disrupt the case against Patience Boateng, manageress of a hotel in Accra, who has been charged with using the retired soldier’s ATM card to withdraw various sums of money from his account.
When the case was set for prosecution, Patience Boateng petitioned the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) against unlawful arrest, which made the PIPS to order the Commercial Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to suspend the investigations and prosecution.
The Director-General in charge of Legal and Prosecutions, DCOP James Oppong-Buanuh, told the Daily Graphic that he ordered the prosecution of the suspect in the case brought by Gen Kellim because enough evidence had been adduced against Patience Boateng.
Other senior officers wondered why PIPS did not refer the matter to the appropriate unit to investigate but held a press briefing on it.
According to them, although PIPS could have effected the arrest, the unit should have handed the case to a unit to investigate, since PIPS was an internal professional investigative body to deal with the conduct of police personnel but not criminal matters involving civilians.
When the head of the Commercial Crime Unit, Superintendent Maame Yaa Tiwaa, was contacted, she declined to comment on the issue except to say that she and her investigators were due to appear before PIPS on Friday, September 18, 2009, on the same matter.
Counsel for Gen Kellim, Mr Joe Debrah, told the Daily Graphic that the conduct of the personnel who effected his client’s arrest was a dent on the Ghana Police Service.
“This is not the Ghana Police Service but some individuals in a private effort under the guise of public duty to torpedo the real case. These are the things that impugn the name of the police,” he said.
He said when the PIPS wrote to the CCU to suspend the prosecutions, they petitioned the Inspector General of Police in a September 8, 2009 statement expressing concern about the instructions of PIPS.
He said the IGP’s attention was drawn to the fact that it was only the Attorney-General who could enter a Nolle Prosequi since the case was a felony.
A lawyer and criminologist, Professor Ken Attafuah, described the arrest and publication of the incident as a sad story.
He explained that Gen Kellim had not produced any pornographic material and sold it or distributed for commercial purposes as frowned upon by the law.
Prof Attafuah said the state had no business in the bedroom of anybody, including a hotel room, where the sexual activities of consenting heterosexual adults are carried out.
According to him, if obscenity was alleged, then the critical ingredients of producing it for sale and distribution to corrupt public morals must have occurred, stressing that “if it is for private consumption, no offence is committed”.
Besides that, he said the comments by the head of PIPS, ACP Timothy Ashiley, at the briefing that Ghanaian women should be wary of white men who promised them marriage and sending them abroad were racist and xenophobic.