The Madina District Court has discharged Daniel Owusu Koranteng, the lead suspect in the 2019 murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussain Suale, following a directive from the Attorney-General’s Office to discontinue the case due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Koranteng, himself an investigative journalist, had been charged with abetment of crime and murder after prosecutors alleged that he led two accomplices, who remain at large to Suale’s residence, where the journalist was later shot and killed by unknown assailants.

He pleaded not guilty and had been on a GHC50,000 bail pending trial.

In court on Tuesday, October 14, the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Nana Afua Bamfoa Bamfo, informed the presiding judge, Susan Nyarkotey, that the Attorney-General (A-G) had instructed them to discontinue the case. The judge subsequently discharged Koranteng and struck the case out.

According to sources close to the Attorney-General’s Department, the decision to drop the case stemmed from the Police’s inability to gather sufficient evidence linking the accused to the crime.

The A-G reportedly noted that while call records placed Koranteng near the scene before, during, and after the killing, that evidence alone was not conclusive. Furthermore, the Police sketch of the assailants, based on eyewitness descriptions, did not match Koranteng’s physical appearance.

The Attorney-General has since advised the Police to intensify efforts to apprehend the two remaining suspects, stressing that the available evidence did not support Koranteng’s alleged role as an abettor.

Background

Koranteng was arrested and first appeared before the Madina District Court on March 19, 2025, where he was charged with murder contrary to Section 46 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

Prosecutors alleged that he had sent pictures of Ahmed Suale to former Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong, who later displayed them on Net2 TV and called for “retribution” against the journalist.

Ahmed Suale, a member of Tiger Eye PI, the investigative team founded by Anas Aremeyaw Anas, was shot dead on January 16, 2019, by unknown assailants while driving near his home in Madina. His murder sparked widespread condemnation and calls for justice from both local and international press freedom advocates.

Despite years of investigations, no one has yet been convicted for his murder. The latest development raises fresh concerns about the pace and direction of the case, as the search for the true perpetrators continues.