Even though the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joe Ghartey, promised significant reforms in the Judicial Service in early 2007 to reduce long remands, very little has changed. Cases of long remand of accused persons with some running into years in the country’s prisons seem unabated. One case which could best be described as bizarre and pathetic is that of Eric Osae, who has been on remand for the past five years without trial. He was accused of robbery. Human rights advocates have described the situation as a serious infringement on the fundamental human rights of the victim. Eric, 24, was a driver’s mate at the time he was arrested by the Police in 2003. Even though Osae was never seen nor arrested by the Police at the scene of the said robbery, he has been languishing at the Nsawam Medium Term Security Prisons for half a decade for reasons best known to the Ghana Police Service and the law lords. According to some family members of Eric Osae, who spoke to the Gye Nyame Concord newspaper at their Teacher Mante residence in the Eastern Region, their son was arrested by police personnel from the Nsawam District Police while onboard a tro-tro from Nsawam to Accra way back in the year 2003 for robbery and has since neither been tried nor released by those who arrested him. The family said the police later told their son that he was seen in a group photograph with his friends who were identified by victims of the said armed robbery at Nsawam as the perpetrators, the paper reports. According to the relatives Osae was once been arrested by the same police outfit and arraigned before a court for loitering only for him to be acquitted and discharged by the court. They contend he has no criminal record and noted that the police have consistently refused to listen to the pleas of innocence by Eric Osae. According to the Gye Nyame Concord newspaper, family sources also revealed that the health status of their son was seriously deteriorating. The source said the unjustified remand of Osei was taking a toll on the family because it was he who provided financial support the family. What is most shocking and revealing, the paper noted, is that not a single charge has been preferred against the accused person. Currently, there is a blackout concerning his docket (if any) and there is little or no information about his ‘trial’ it said. Among the things, Mr Ghartey said that the controversial remand situation will be coming under further scrutiny, revealing that “a remand alert is going to be created.” “This new position would be used to monitor the status of remand prisoners on a bi-weekly basis with an eye towards cases which have dragged on for some time”, he stated. However, the situation on the grounds is far from what the the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General promised as part of the judicial reforms in the country’s court system. Reached for clarification on the delay of Eric Osae’s case, Superintendent Nyampong, Police Commander of the Nsawam Police District, told Gye Nyame Concord that he was still trying to find out the cause of the long remand of the accused person. Meanwhile, family sources told the Concord’s reporter that the docket of poor Eric Osae had been lying in the Attorney-General’s office at the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua. This, according to the sources, came about due to a directive that came from the office to all police outfits in the region in 2003 to forward dockets of all robbery cases to that office for prosecution. Currently, there are people who have been locked up for up to 10 years without trial. However, authorities maintain that the process to release those on remand for very long periods without any hope of a trial is on course. The Country Report on Human Rights Practices (2002) released by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour in March 31, 2003 had this to say about Ghana’s judicial and prisons services: “Prison conditions remained harsh and life-threatening. Prolonged pre-trial detention remained a problem.” Source: Gye Nyame Concord