Failed Mahama assassin is a confirmed psychiatric patient

A brother of the 36-year-old man convicted for attempting to assassinate President John Mahama says the BNI had information Charles Antwi had previously been treated for mental illness.

Charles Antwi was arrested last Sunday for carrying a gun to the Ringway Gospel Centre branch of the Assemblies of God Church, where President Mahama and his family fellowship.

He was jailed 10 years yesterday without a lawyer and some lawyers have criticized the trial judge for violating the suspect’s constitutional rights.
Prior to his sentence, the prosecution had told the presiding judge that Charles Antwi was mentally sound, but his brother Kwame Opoku, with whom Charles lived before the incident, he led officials of the BNI to the Tafo Government Hospital where the convict had previously sought treatment for mental illness.

He said during the interrogation, the investigators realised Charles’ statement was not adding up. This prompted the security agency to follow him to the hospital and his hometown to ascertain his true state of mind.

According to Kwame Opoku, the security officials were told at the hospital, at a taxi station where the brother worked and by a fetish priest that Charles Antwi was mentally unstable, and has been there for five years now.