Kaneshie court remands British Simpson-Kent in BNI custody
A District Magistrate Court in Accra has remanded the British national, Arthur Simpson-Kent, who has been accused of multiple murders in London into the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).
Simpson-Kent has been accused of murdering his girlfriend and two children in London and running away to hide in Ghana.
He was arraigned before the District Magistrate Court at Kaneshie in Accra on Tuesday and the court remanded him into BNI custody to re-appear on January 26, 2016.
Counsel for the accused, Justice Srim Sai, had challenged the arrest and detention of Simpson-Arthur and argued that, “If the arrest is improper, then the detention, remand and anything that follows should be reconsidered.”
He said the procedures for arrest for extradition were not followed for which reason his client [Simpson-Arthur] must be released .
The court, presided over by Rosemond Agyiri has fixed January 26, 2016 to properly listen to those arguments by counsel for the accused.
Following his arrest, Simpson-Kent is expected to be extradited to the United Kingdom (UK) to face trial, but the Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong told the Daily Graphic on Monday that the AG’s Department was yet to receive a formal request to that effect from the British government.
“A request was made for the suspect’s arrest and that was successfully chalked up by the police,” Mrs Appiah-Opong said and added “we can only begin the process for extradition when a formal request is made,” she said.
Arthur Simpson-Kent is alleged to have killed a former EastEnders actress, Sian Blake, and her two sons and bolted to Ghana days after being questioned about the crime.
The alleged murderer was arrested by a team of police detectives from the Homicide Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Hanson Gove, at his hideout in a thicket at Butre, near the Busua Beach Resort in the Western Region, last Saturday, January 9, 2016.
The 49-year-old suspect was said to have travelled to Glasgow, Scotland, to Amsterdam and finally landed in Ghana on December 19, 2015.
The bodies of Sian Blake, 43, Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, were discovered in the garden of their London home last week Tuesday.
Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh