Court dismisses Charles Bissue’s bid to quash corruption charges against him and others

The former Secretary of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has suffered a setback in his attempt to have corruption charges against him and two others dismissed. The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), in an update on the case posted on Facebook on Thursday, October 29, said the court had dismissed the grounds advanced by Mr Bissue to challenge the prosecution as frivolous.

Mr Bissue, Raphael Mensah and Dr Naa Dedei Tagoe are facing nine counts involving alleged corruption and abuse of public office. In 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) filed the criminal charges on April 28, in relation to the widely publicised ‘Galamsey Fraud’ investigation, as documented in the 2019 Tiger Eye P.I. report. According to the OSP, Mr Bissue challenged the prosecution on three grounds: that an earlier case remained pending, that the police had cleared him, and that the OSP lacked the authority to investigate cases that had not been referred to it by the police.

On the claim that an earlier case was still pending, the Court requested the original records of the proceedings. The records, dated July 3, 2025, indicated that the case had been withdrawn and struck out. Mr Bissue’s lawyer, Augustine Obour, initially disputed the records, saying he could not remember appearing in court on that date or seeing one of the accused persons.

The judge held that the lawyer’s failure to remember the proceedings was not sufficient reason to reject the official court records. Mr Obour subsequently withdrew his challenge and asked the Court to accept the records. The OSP said the Court dismissed all three grounds of challenge, describing them as frivolous. Mr Bissue has pursued multiple legal challenges against the investigation and prosecution since 2023.

The latest ruling allows the prosecution to proceed, although the allegations against the accused persons remain to be determined by the Court. Read Also: OSP files criminal charges against Charles Bissue over alleged IMCIM corruption scandal