The High Court in Accra has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of 23-year-old Safina Mohammed, a Level 100 Biological Sciences student who has been accused of the suspected murder of her partner after failing to appear in court.
Safina Diamond has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her Ghanaian partner, Frank Osei, who lived in Canada. Safina is now released on bail.
When the case was called on Wednesday, October 23, the accused and her lawyers were not in court.
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, a Court of Appeal judge who also sits on the High Court, issued a bench warrant for her arrest.
“We were supposed to have a date with the jury and the lawyers today (October 23) for the trial to commence this morning,” Justice Marfo announced. “Unintentionally, the accused individual and her lawyers are missing without a reasonable explanation. “A bench warrant is hereby issued for her arrest,” the court ordered.
Nana Ama Adinkra, Senior State Attorney, appeared in court. The jury empaneled in previous legal years has been freed, and a new panel will be created in accordance with current criteria, according to Murtala Inusah, the EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent.
In her statement to the jury on Thursday, March 7, the Senior State Attorney stated plans to summon nine witnesses to support their case, including the accused’s other lover and five police officers.
She added that the prosecution would prove Frank Osei’s death was caused by unlawful harm, which was purposefully inflicted by the defendants.
The Senior State Attorney further said that the knife identified as the murder weapon, which showed blood marks, was DNA tested and verified to be the deceased’s.
A DNA test performed on July 29, 2022, revealed that the cause of death was unnatural. Medical professionals determined that the deceased’s body was in the early stages of decomposition and that he had died at least 72 hours earlier.
Defense attorney Samuel Alesu-Dordzi urged the jury to follow the values of fairness, objectivity, and justice. He expressed amazement at the prosecution’s claims that his client and the deceased were having “kinky sex,” encouraging the jury to evaluate both sides of the tale before reaching a decision. He also advised them to shun social media opinion about the issue.
According to the prosecution, on Sunday, July 24, 2022, while on vacation in Ghana, Osei visited his fiancée Safina at her home in Ashaley Botwe School Junction and agreed to spend the night with her. That night, Safina and accomplices who have yet to be captured allegedly stabbed and strangled Osei.
The prosecution argues that Safina and her accomplices wiped up the blood on the floor while Osei’s body remained in the room for 24 hours. They claim that the body was brought down the stairs from the first floor and thrown at the gate of the residence, where Osei had parked his Toyota Tundra.
Safina apparently called the police, stating that her partner had died in her bedroom. When law enforcement arrived, they discovered Osei’s body lying at the gate to Safina’s residence, prompting her arrest for further investigation.
