African authorities have been criticised by lawyers of a preacher accused of murdering his pregnant Angus wife in a Ghanaian hotel room.
Legal representatives for pastor Eric Isaiah Adusah of the Global Light Revival Ministries have failed in their latest bid to secure bail for him.
He was arrested on a murder charge after the discovery of the body of Charmain Adusah, ne Speirs, in a bath on March 20.
She was found in the couple’s room at the Mac Dic Royal Plaza Hotel, Koforidua, in Ghana’s Eastern Region two days after her husband checked out and left instructions for her not to be disturbed because she was observing fasting and prayers.
An autopsy report revealed Mrs Adusah died of a heroin overdose but her devastated mother, Linda Speirs from Arbroath, has said she refuses to believe her daughter would have anything to do with drugs.
Lawyers for Adusah, head pastor at the Tottenham branch of the Global Light Revival Ministries, have now complained about delays in accessing the advice of the attorney general.
Following a magistrate’s refusal to release the 28-year-old evangelist from remand, they have also been advised to make any future bail application to a higher court in the country.
Although charged with murder, Adusah has made no plea and his lawyer said any delay would be detrimental to his client’s fundamental human rights.
The prosecution in the case has been given 10 days by the trial magistrate to follow up advice from the attorney general’s department.
It has been suggested that vital information should have been passed on around three weeks ago.
Adusah has been supported by a large number of pastors at court hearings.
The latest stages of the case have also seen police confirm their investigations have shown no one else was in the hotel room where the Angus woman’s body lay after the accused left.
That conflicts with claims published in a Ghanaian newspaper that the room was accessed using a front desk key card on the morning of March 19, almost 24 hours before police discovered the body.
It has been suggested a painter had been due to work on the room’s ceiling but left straight away after hearing a television on.
According to the prosecution, the condition of Mrs Adusah’s body clearly showed she had died a couple of days earlier a situation that raised their suspicions.