Police officer jailed for assisting ex-convict travel abroad

A police officer has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by an Accra Circuit Court because he helped an ex-convict, Harold Davies Johnson, leave Ghana before he finished his sentence at the Nsawam Prisons.

At the end of the trial, the court found Detective Lance Corporal Kwame Adu Asabereh guilty.

The police officer was said to have let an ex-convict, Johnson, get him to help him get out of the country and avoid serving the rest of his sentence.

He was charged with making a fake government document, helping someone commit a crime, and bribery by a public officer.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sylvester Asare told Mrs. Patricia Amponsah, who was in charge of the court, that Asabereh was a police officer who worked at the Ghana Police Service’s Criminal Investigation Department.

The prosecution said that in 2019, a case of fraud by false pretenses involving a British citizen named Harold Davies Johnson, also known as Emmanuel Snowden, was sent to Asabereh to be looked into.

It said that after investigations, Asabereh was told to charge Johnson with fraud by false pretense and bring him to court.

So, Naa Adjeley Quaison, who was in charge of the court, brought Johnson before it. Johnson admitted to the crime and was given a three-year prison sentence.

The prosecution said that Johnson was given to the case officer, Asabereh so that he could be sent to Nsawam Medium Prison.

The prosecution said it was strange that Asabereh didn’t send Johnson to Nsawam. Instead, he sent him to his house in Sapieman, where he stayed for a while.

The prosecution said that investigations showed Johnson had also promised to help Asabereh travel abroad. Asabereh gave Johnson his passport because of this promise, and Johnson went to the UK without serving his sentence.

The prosecution said that Asabereh faked the Police Removal of the Prisoner Book to make it look like prison officials at Nsawam had sent and received Johnson.

The government said that Asabereh admitted to the crime when he was caught.

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