Ghana Chief Justice Suspended in ‘Judicial Coup’

President John Mahama suspended Supreme Court Justice Gertrude Torkornoo on Wednesday and opened an investigation into the judge in an unprecedented move that critics called an assault on judicial independence, Reuters reported. 

The move followed petitions calling for her permanent removal based on undisclosed allegations. 

The petitions, which will be reviewed by a committee, have not been released to the public, and Torkornoo has not commented so far on the suspension. Copies of the petition were also not provided to Torkornoo, which some lawyers argued was a violation of her right to a fair hearing.  

Chief justices in Ghana, who serve life terms, can only be removed on very narrow grounds, including incompetence and misbehavior, according to the BBC. 

Ghana’s former attorney general, Godfred Yeboah Dame, said the suspension was an excuse to attack the judiciary. 

“It’s the biggest assault on the (judiciary) in the nation’s history, the greatest assault on the independence of the judiciary under the constitutional dispensation of this country,” Dame told the BBC. 

This is not the first time Torkornoo has faced calls for her removal. She survived a removal request earlier this year after the then-President Akufo-Addo rejected a dismissal petition, citing “several deficiencies.” She was appointed chief justice by Akufo-Addo in 2023. 

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers fiercely condemned the suspension of the country’s chief justice, accusing Mahama – elected in January – of trying to “pack the courts” with justices who are sympathetic to the governing party. 

“(It is) nothing short of a brazen judicial coup, a reckless abuse of executive power, and a direct assault on the independence of Ghana’s judiciary,” the lawmakers said in a statement. 

Ghana was once an island of stability in Africa, and was held up as a model for the continent. But in more recent years, it has faced economic uncertainty and threats from militants in neighboring Burkina Faso.