Ghana: UK alleged murder suspect to stand trial back home

Ghana’s Attorney General has been ordered to speed up the process of extraditing to the United Kingdom (UK), an alleged murder suspect, Arthur Simpson-Kent.

The order follows a plea by the accused at Ghana’s High Court in Accra on Tuesday.

Arthur Simpson-Kent was arrested in Ghana’s Western region on January 9 for allegedly killing his former girlfriend, EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two sons.

The suspect who spoke for the first time in court on Tuesday since his arrest early this month, told the court his journey to Ghana was not to escape arrest and prosecution in the UK.

State Prosecutors earlier told the court they had received detailed documents detailing Mr. Simpson-Kent’s complicity in the murder.

The nearly 200 page deposition contained CCTV footage chronicling how the suspect left his family home in the UK and traveled to Ghana. But his lawyer Justice Srem-Sai accused the prosecutors of hiding the fresh evidence from him. The defense team then requested a 30 minute break to confer with their client.

After the break, Justice Srem-Sai told the court his client wants to be voluntarily extradited.

Trial judge Afua Merley Wood then ordered the Attorney General to expedite the extradition process for Arthur Simpson-Kent to face the murder charges in the UK.