“Our criminal justice system treats suspects like slaves” – Felicity Nelson

Felicity Nelson, a social justice activist who recently took part in Democracy Hub’s #StopGalamseyNow demonstration, has criticized Ghana’s criminal justice system, saying it “treats suspects like slaves”.

Ms Nelson recounted her experiences with the Ghana Police Service, claiming she was treated unfairly during her two weeks in police custody.

I’ll keep talking JoyNews’ news file On Saturday, October 12, Nelson said police grabbed her on the street without informing her of an arrest, took her phone, and only at the police station did she learn from a statement from the investigator that she was being held for unlawful assembly .

She said she was being denied the right to contact her family.

“When I was taken to Cantonments police station, upon arrival I said I had to call my family. From the time my phone was taken away when I was arrested, the police had my phone for about ten days and I hadn’t seen it. So I went to the police station and said I had to call my family – I’m asthmatic and I had to tell them so they could bring my inhaler. They told me, no, your phone isn’t here, so you can’t use it to “call,” she explained.

Ms Nelson said she told police that since her detention she had not had access to her phone, which was held by police, and that she had no information about which officer had it.

“So I went into the cell. I actually had an asthma attack that night and was taken to the police hospital. When we got to the police hospital they said I needed an inhaler and it cost 140 cedis. The police officer who took me to the police hospital didn’t have 140 cedis and said they couldn’t afford to buy the inhaler.

“There was a lot of back and forth between them and the doctor. I have had family members die from asthma attacks. They had to do something called nebulization, which cost 75 cedis, so they could afford it,” she said.

She noted that during this time her family found out that she was being held at the Cantonments police station and came by three times to drop off her inhaler. However, the police falsely claimed that she was not there.

She clarified that the police had the opportunity to take the inhaler from her family and bring it to her, but did not do so.

Against this backdrop, Ms Nelson expressed her displeasure that the country’s justice system allowed such incidents to occur, adding that many others she spoke to in the cell shared similar frustrations.

“When I was in the cells, I spoke to other inmates who had never managed to call any of their friends. People who have been there for six months and have never been able to call, so they don’t even know they are there. This means they have no access to legal representation,” she stressed.

She continued; “So it’s not just about me, it’s also about how our criminal justice system treats suspects like slaves, treats them like people with no rights; That’s what it’s really about.”

Felicity was among 53 Ghanaians who protested against illegal mining and were arrested and imprisoned for, among other things, illegal assembly.

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