Three soldiers among six sentenced to death for coup plot in Ghana

BY FRANCIS KOKUTSE
Associated Press

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A high court in Ghana has sentenced to death six people, including three soldiers, after convicting them of plotting to carry out a coup against the country’s government in 2019. The death-by-hanging sentence prompted calls from activists on Thursday for the death penalty to be abolished. It was the first treason conviction in several decades in Ghana, one of Africa’s most stable democracies, and comes amid a surge of coups in the continent. It was not clear whether the six would be executed as Ghana has not carried out any execution since the early 1990s. Amnesty International’s Ghana office said it will continue to fight for an end to the death penalty.