Amnesty expresses concern over detentions

Amnesty International has expressed concern about the detention of a middle-aged couple who had protested publicly about the abduction of their son by members of Ghana's presidential guard. "Amnesty International is concerned that the Ghanaian authorities have prosecuted and detained them, and have not investigated allegations of serious human rights violations against them and their son by the security forces," the rights group said in a statement on Friday. Anthony Kofi Mensah Djentuh and Maria O'Sullivan-Djentuh were convicted on 16 August of assaulting a police officer and offensive conduct in seeking information about their son. Police had authorized them to broadcast a radio appeal. Amnesty said they are "probably prisoners of conscience imprisoned because they spoke out publicly in defence of their son's human rights." Their son, Selassie O'Sullivan-Djentuh, had been detained and beaten by security forces in January after his relationship with the president's daughter went sour, Amnesty said. He fled the country recently with his younger brother and sought refugee status in Britain.