MV Benjamin - One prisoner dies

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 (Page 31)

PHILIP Bruce-Arhin, one of the persons who was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in the MV Benjamin cocaine case, is dead.
He died from jaundice at the infirmary of the Nsawam Prisons last Saturday barely three weeks after his conviction.
He was reported to have been discharged from the Nsawam Government Hospital on Friday, August, 8, 2008 but he died in the morning of August 9, 2008 at the prisons.
According to sources close to the MV Benjamin cocaine case, Bruce-Arhin had been on admission at the Nsawam Government Hospital since the last week of July, 2008.
Sources further disclosed that Bruce-Arhin’s wife was informed of her husband’s death when she visited later in the day. She was said to have wailed uncontrollably after hearing of the news.
Family members have been informed of Bruce-Arhin’s death but his body is yet to be handed over to them.
The late Bruce-Arhin was not present in court on July 25, 2008, the day of his sentence, due to ill-health.
The four other convicts — Joseph Kojo Dawson, the owner of the MV Benjamin vessel, which was used to cart 77 parcels of cocaine into the country, Isaac Arhin, as well as Cui Xian Li and Luo Yin Xing, both Chinese — are currently serving their terms at the Nsawam Prisons.
The four were each also convicted to a term of 25 years’ imprisonment after they stood trial for 20 months alongside the deceased.
The convicts, including the deceased, were found guilty on charges of using property for narcotic offences, engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotics and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
They had earlier pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
A sixth accused person, Pak Bok Sil, a Korean national, was on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 acquitted and discharged by the court, which ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a case against him.
The MV Benjamin was used to cart 77 parcels of cocaine weighing 2,310 kilogrammes, with a street value of $138.6 million, for the alleged cocaine fugitive, Sheriff Asem Dakeh, alias The Limping Man, who hired the vessel in February 2006.
However, 76 parcels of the drug later disappeared after the vessel was impounded in March 2006.