Ghana: Weekly ordered to pay damages to defence minister

A High Court in Accra on July 28, 2005 ordered the independent weekly, "National Democrat ", to pay Ghana's Minister of State for Defence, Kwame Addo- Kufuor, 400 million Cedis (approximately US$ 44,000) in damages for publishing an article that the minister considered to be defamatory. The court also awarded 10 million Cedis (approximately US$ 1,100) in cost against the D.D.D Publications, publishers of the "National Democrat" newspaper and Ebenezer Josiah, a former editor. The newspaper had in its October 4-6, 2004 edition of the paper published an article allegedly implicating Addo- Kufuor in a serial murder of over 30 Ghanaian women in 1999 and 2000.