The former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata has appeared before the African Commission on Human and People's Right.

The Commission is currently meeting in Ghana for its 44th Ordinary Session.

Mr Tsikata is currently awaiting judgement in a case in which he has been standing trial for willfully causing financial loss to the state.

Officials of the Commission are tight-lipped on the case but confirmed Mr Tsikata’s appearance before it.

According to the Commission, Mr Tsikata filed a case against the Government of Ghana in April 2006 on alleged violations of his rights under the African Charter Human and People's Rights.

His case is among a number of private cases the Commission is dealing with between May 25 and 27 during its private sessions. Other nationals from Kenya, Gabon, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Botswana, and Egypt would also appear before the Commission.

Tsikata had accused the Government of using legislation retroactively to charge him with an offence that was not a crime at the relevant time, and that he was being denied a fair trial by being denied the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

He also claimed that Government had been compromising the independence of the judiciary as part of "an irrevocable determination" to have him found guilty "by hook or by crook...without any reference to the facts and legal issues."