Inside Details of How Wife Plotted Husband’s Murder and Staged Robbery to Cover Up Crime
- The Supreme Court of Ghana upheld the death sentences of Salamatu Karim and two accomplices in the 2013 murder of her husband, Abdul Karim
- Salamatu hid the attackers in her own bathroom, pointed out her husband, and supplied the weapon before calling police to report a fake burglary
- The case broke open years later after an unrelated robbery investigation led detectives to the two men she had recruited
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A Ghanaian woman who orchestrated the killing of her husband by hiding attackers inside their own home has had her death sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Salamatu Karim, along with her brother Awudu Alhassan Sulemana, known as "Dozer," and a third accomplice, Mohammed Sulemana, known as "Banana," exhausted every available avenue of appeal before the apex court dismissed their case and affirmed all three convictions.
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Legal practitioner Joseph Ackah-Blay detailed the findings of the case, which stretches back to the night of June 15, 2013 at ACP Estates in Pokuase.
A staged burglary unravels
Shortly before 10 pm that evening, Salamatu placed a call to law enforcement, claiming armed intruders had stormed the family home and attacked her husband, Abdul Karim, while she was bathing.
According to a report by GhanaWeb, when officers arrived, Abdul had already been transported to hospital, where he was declared dead.
A post-mortem examination told a different story. Pathologists found severe fractures to Abdul's skull and jaw, injuries consistent with a deliberate, sustained beating rather than violence incidental to a burglary.
The case went cold until police arrested a suspect named Kofi Nyagbedzi during a separate robbery investigation.
Information he provided led investigators to Dozer and Banana, who were tracked down and arrested in Dodowa.
Confessions shows Salamatu's role
During interrogation, the two men admitted the robbery story was a fabrication from the start.
Prosecutors established that Salamatu personally let Dozer and Banana into the property, concealed them in the bathroom, identified her husband as the target, and handed over the weapon used in the attack.
She also promised them money once the act was done, before staging the scene and alerting police.
The trial court convicted Dozer of murder and conspiracy, Banana of conspiracy, and Salamatu of abetment of murder. All three were sentenced to death.
Supreme Court ends years of legal battles
The trio challenged their convictions at the Court of Appeal, which upheld the original verdict in November 2018.
Defence lawyer Raphael Alijina Debrah then brought the matter before the Supreme Court on thirteen grounds, contesting the admissibility of the confession statements, the trial judge's directions to the jury, and whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions.
The Supreme Court rejected every ground. The justices found that the trial judge had correctly conducted a mini-trial to confirm the confessions were given voluntarily, and ruled that appellate courts should not easily overturn such factual findings.
The court also found the jury directions legally sound and balanced.
On Salamatu's individual conviction, the court ruled that witness testimony, medical evidence, and proof of her preparatory actions collectively established her guilt for abetment of murder beyond reasonable doubt.
The appeal was dismissed in its entirety, and the death sentences for all three individuals were affirmed.
Man jailed 39 years for shooting pregnant wife
Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh previously reported that a 44-year-old man had been jailed for 39 years for attempting to kill his wife while she slept.
Effort Dankwa shot his then-pregnant wife while she was sound asleep in a gruesome incident that was believed to have been an attempt to get rid of the baby she was carrying.
Benita Dankwa, his wife, was left paralysed and explained that her husband had never wanted to have any children.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
