US government has assisted Ghana to break the lock of an Iphone and a Huawei Phone used by late investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale.
Police investigators have since found thousands of images, texts, audios, videos and WhatsApp messages exchanged or received by Ahmed Suale and is undergoing analysis.
On 16 January 2019, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, who had previously collaborated with the BBC, was shot dead near his family home in Accra. Ghanaian police believe he was assassinated because of his work.
Unidentified men on motorbikes shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in his neck in his vehicle according to Anas Aremeyaw Anas who first broke news of the death of his colleague at midnight of 17th January, 2019.
Providing an update on the murder case, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame said the murder Ahmed Suale may have been linked to something else other than his investigative journalism.
Mr Dame, among other things, stated that no docket fit for prosecution or action has been submitted to his office over the murder.
US collaboration to unlock his phone
While answering questions on the floor of Parliament, Mr Dame said the AG and the Criminal Investigations Department had to seek US assistance to unlock the password of Ahmed Suale’s iphone and Huawei phone to be able to access potential clues or evidence to help arrest his killers.
He said two mobile phones of the late Suale were sent to the United States of America for unlocking and extracting of information by information technology experts from which huge volumes of data comprising “millions of documents, videos, audios, texts and WhatsApp messages have been analysed by a team from the Homicide and Cybercrime Units.”
According to Mr Dame, a lot of work had been done with regard to investigations with the Ahmed Suale case and the others and no matter how long it takes, government would do its best to bring the perpetrators to book.
Further investigations
Establishing the motive of the murder, Dame said, was very important as the killing may not be connected to Ahmed Suale’s investigative work.
“Just like the Tupac Shakur case (an American rapper who was killed in 1996 but the case determined some months ago), surely justice will be delivered in the Ahmed Suale case,” he emphasized.
According to him, the investigation was expansive including contacting the Department of Geomatic Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for the use of satellite imagery, sketch of assailants from a description of witnesses and use of telecommunications.
