According to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), it is lawful for it to detain suspects of interest without a warrant, given the authority it possesses.
Shortly after a Human Rights Court issued an interlocutory injunction prohibiting the Special Prosecutor or its designees from arresting Charles Bissue, the OSP reiterated its position on Twitter.
“The general public is advised, that in the exercise of its police powers, the Office of the Special Prosecutor can arrest without a warrant, any person it reasonably suspects of having committed corruption or corruption-related offenses.”
An interim injunction prohibiting the Office of the Special Prosecutor or its agents from carrying out a purported arrest order against Charles Bissue was given in response to a request made by Bissue’s attorneys to the Human Rights Court, presided over by Justice Nicholas Abodakpi.
In addition, the court ordered the Special Prosecutor to cease requesting additional arrest warrants and publicizing notifications indicating that the applicant is wanted while the substantive matter was still being decided.
The case has been postponed until June 22, 2023, and the injunction will be in effect for 10 days.
This comes after Charles Bissue, the former secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), was listed as a wanted person by the Special Prosecutor.
The declaration followed Mr Bissue’s failure to respond to an invitation from the Special Prosecutor to appear and provide answers related to the ongoing investigation into suspected corruption within the dissolved IMCIM
