Michael Agbotui Soussoudis: Controversial Cousin Of Late JJ Rawlings Passes On

• A cousin of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, Michael Agbotui Soussoudis, has died
• Soussoudis is famously remembered for the Sharon Scranage espionage scandal of the mid-1980s
• He ended up suffering a 20-year prison sentence for espionage after being tricked into being arrested

Michael Agbotui Soussoudis, a cousin of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings has, been reported dead.

Soussoudis passed away in South Africa on September 3.

The Herald reported that Rawlings' cousin is believed to have died from lung failure.

Why is Soussoudis well known?

Soussoudis is famously remembered for the Sharon Scranage espionage scandal, which involved him getting classified information from a CIA employee between May 1983 and October 1984

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He was in a relationship with Sharon Scranage, the said CIA employee.

He reportedly obtained the identities of Ghanaian citizens who were spying for the CIA, as well as plans for a coup against the Ghanaian government by dissidents.

After Soussoudis' relationship with Scranage’s relationship was discovered, Scranage agreed to help the FBI lure the former president's cousin to the US.

Scranage caused Soussoudis's arrest by luring him to a meeting, leading to him being charged with eight counts of espionage.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison during a closed court hearing. He was later freed in a prisoner swap involving eight of the agents whose identities he had helped compromise in Ghana.

These eight CIA spies were stripped of their Ghanaian citizenship before being deported to the US.

Kwame Nkrumah's firstborn dies at 89

YEN.com.gh reported that the eldest child of Kwame Nkrumah, Professor Francis Nkrumah, has passed on.

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His death was announced by the Convention People’s Party (CPP) official page on X.

He died on Sunday, June 30, 2024, at the ripe age of 89. The late Emeritus Professor was the longest-serving director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIR).

Professor Francis Nkrumah also received three awards for his role on the Africa Regional Certification Committee. He was honoured as the chairman of the Regional Task Force on Immunisation (TFI).

Source: YEN.com.gh