Suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has quizzed how she can defend herself when she does not even know what she is defending against.
According to a supplementary affidavit filed with the Supreme Court as part of her legal challenge Chief Justice Torkornoo alleges violations of her fundamental rights in the ongoing impeachment proceedings against her.
She revealed that what she is going through at the hands of the Committee’s investigating petitions for her removal is not even meted out to persons accused of treason.
The suspended CJ Torkornoo asserted that she has not been informed of the legal basis on which a prima facie case was determined, nor of the specific allegations she is required to answer.
“How can I defend myself when I don’t even know what I’m defending against?” she asked.
In her supplementary affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, May 26, 2025, the Chief Justice outlined stated, “Other developments, like the denial of access into the hearing room for my husband and children, searches on my body, denial of access to telephones and laptops for myself and my lawyers (even though counsel for petitioners have access to their phones and laptops), and the conduct of the hearing itself in a high-security zone at the premises of the Castle, Osu, show a deliberate effort to subject me to mental torture and degrading treatment in violation of my fundamental rights”.
According to CJ Torkornoo, “They want to break me. What I am going through is not even meted out to persons accused of treason”
She added, “This Honourable Court is the only shield between me and an unconstitutional assault on the office I hold and the independence it symbolises. Only you can stop this assault on judicial independence.”
“I have been treated in a manner not meted out even to persons on trial for treason,”
“All Article 146 proceedings, with the exception of the one I am being subjected to, had hitherto been held in a judicial facility, specifically the Courts Complex. The location of proceedings affecting me to a cordoned high-security facility boggles the mind”, she noted.
She further described the process as a “mockery of justice and a ruse to unjustifiably remove me from office as the Chief Justice.”
“On 23rd May, 2025, notwithstanding receipt of the processes filed in the Supreme Court, including the application for interlocutory injunction, the members of the committee indicated their resolve to proceed with the conduct of the inquiry”, she added.
“This is bigger than me. What is at stake is the security of tenure for every justice of the Superior Courts of Judicature. What is under threat is the very soul of our Constitution”, she warns.
