JUDGMENT OF KINGSLEY-NYINAH J.
This is an application for leave to appeal against the ruling of his worship J.F.S. Hansen, Esquire, delivered in these extradition proceedings on Thursday, 5 September 1968. In that ruling, the learned magistrate decided against the surrender unto the Government of Sierra Leone of Major Sandi Boakarie Jumu, referred to in the proceedings as the fugitive. The burden of his decision was that since the acts of the respondent herein were of a [p.1060] political character, he could not properly and legally order his extradition under our laws.
In the course of the proceedings before the district court, several exhibits were tendered in evidence, amongst them, the duly authenticated depositions, taken in Sierra Leone, and the charges, (running into three counts) upon which the extradition of the respondent herein was sought, namely false imprisonment. Concerning that offence, the particulars of offence made the following allegations: As to count (1) that: "Sandi Jumu . . . assaulted Cyril Bunting Rogers-Wright and then unlawfully and injuriously imprisoned Cyril Bunting Rogers-Wright and detained him for an hour against the will of the said Cyril Bunting Rogers-Wright." Counts (2) and (3) made the very same allegations of: "unlawful and injurious imprisonment"; of "assault," and of "detention against the will of Mohamed Sorie Forna (count 2); and Ibrahim Bash Taqi (count 3)."
Before the District Court, Accra, however, ex-army Major Jumu was arraigned on the charge of kidnapping, three counts, each touching and concerning the three worthy gentlemen above-mentioned. That offence is contrary to section 89 of the Ghana Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29). It is not necessary for the purpose of this instant ruling to launch into a definition of the offences of false imprisonment, or of kidnapping. Suffice it to say that while under the laws of this country false imprisonment is not an extradition crime, it is such under the Extradition Act of Sierra Leone (No. 60 of 1962). And there is no dispute in the proceedings that Ghana is a Common-wealth country to which the provisions of this Sierra Leone statute apply.
While section 29 of our Extradition Act, 1960 (Act 22), defines what an extradition crime is; section 30 defines a "fugitive criminal" as:
"any person accused or convicted of an extradition crime committed within the jurisdiction of any other country who is in or is suspected of being in Ghana."
There may very well be some subs
