I was not privy to some details in Gitmo detainee transfer – Hanna Tetteh

Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh has disclosed she was not privy to some of the details surrounding the coming into Ghana of two terror suspects.

According to her, the decision was taken by President John Mahama in consultation with some security chiefs.

Speaking to an Accra based radio station 3FM, Hanna Tetteh said at some point of the discussion, she had to be excused.

The arrival into Ghana of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby has triggered lots of controversy in the country.

Government and its spokespersons have boldly defended the decision to bring the two into Ghana but major stakeholders including the Christian Council, and other pressure groups have kicked against it.

Concerns have been raised about why the president did not consult Parliament before taking the decision. Pressure Group, OccupyGhana has also threatened to go court on the matter but the Foreign Minister insists government did no wrong in taking the decision.

“We have an executive presidency. Once it became a matter that was effectively a national security decision, it was within the purview of his Excellency the president to take that decision as to whether we will accept them.

“The decision as taken is not illegal,” she said.

Explaining why Ghanaians were not informed about the arrival, she said the discussions were purely a national security issue- some of which went beyond Foreign Affairs.

“At the time the discussions were on going, especially because at that point in time it no longer was a Foreign Affairs discussion, it was a national security discussion. There were some of those discussions i was not privy to,” she added.

When her attention was drawn to the 2007 leaked US Department of Defense document which suggested that the two detainees were high risk terrorists, the Foreign Minister said that document was not part of the document given to the government of Ghana and that she saw it on facebook.

“Those were the documents that i have seen floating around on Social media is not part of the documentations that was made available to us for which reason i referred it back to the US embassy. They are going to respond to it.

“That document was not made available to us at the time we were making our assessment,” she said, adding she would not comment on that document.