{"id":117504,"date":"2026-03-02T08:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117504"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:09:47","slug":"mid-march-hearing-expected-after-ofori-atta-bond-case-stalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117504","title":{"rendered":"Mid-March hearing expected after Ofori-Atta bond case stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lawyers for former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta say a fresh court date in mid-March is now being considered for his bond application, after the February 19 sitting came and went without any substantive hearing.<\/p>\n

A member of the defence team, Frank Davies, said proceedings that day were reduced to a single procedural filing from the US Department of Justice \u2014 far short of the full hearing that had been anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no hearing on the 19th,\u201d Davies stated. The court, he explained, was only informed that extradition proceedings had been requested \u2014 but crucially, the contents of that request were never put before the judge.<\/p>\n

With no supporting documentation presented in open court, the judge was unable to rule on Ofori-Atta\u2019s bond application, leaving the former minister\u2019s fate in detention unresolved for at least another few weeks.<\/p>\n

Davies, however, struck a cautiously optimistic tone, describing the mid-March development as \u201csome good update\u201d \u2014 suggesting the defence team sees the upcoming sitting as a meaningful opportunity to finally get a ruling.<\/p>\n

Ofori-Atta, who served as Finance Minister under former President Nana Akufo-Addo, has been held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, since January 6, 2026, after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

He had been in the United States seeking medical treatment for a chronic liver condition when the political tide in Ghana turned following the December 2024 general elections. <\/p>\n

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) subsequently charged him with corruption and financial misconduct relating to the controversial Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) revenue assurance contract.<\/p>\n

The OSP confirmed late February that Ghana\u2019s extradition package has been formally transmitted to US authorities \u2014 a move that now places the case in the hands of both the US Department of Justice and the immigration court handling Ofori-Atta\u2019s detention.<\/p>\n

His legal team has consistently maintained that the charges are politically motivated, a position that appeared to gain some traction when INTERPOL permanently removed a Red Notice issued against Ofori-Atta, citing violations of its political neutrality rules.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lawyers for former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta say a fresh court date in mid-March is now being considered for his bond application, after the February 19 sitting came and went without any substantive hearing.<\/p>\n

A member of the defence team, Frank Davies, said proceedings that day were reduced to a single procedural filing from the US Department of Justice \u2014 far short of the full hearing that had been anticipated.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[373,1945,1883,1352,335,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frank-davies","category-hp-news-8","category-national","category-ofori-atta","category-osp","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}