The Food and Drugs Authority has revealed that Gospel musician Brother Sammy will possibly be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison for flouting the Public Health Act 851.
Public Relation Officer of the Authority, James Lartey who revealed this in an interview with SVTV noted that the musician was promoting a product which had not gone through the necessary checks for certification.
According to him, the musician can also be fined between GH¢90,000 and GH¢180,000 for the offense.
“When you’re found guilty you can be fined an amount of 7,500 penalty units, one penalty unit is GH¢12 so that’s about GH¢90,000 minimum… the judge can decide that ‘I want to jail you’. The minimum sentence for jailing is 15 years and the maximum sentence is 25 years.”
He added that the judge who presides on the case can also decide to give the musician both a jail term and a fine.
Brother Sammy was captured in a video recording claiming to have found a cure for HIV/AIDS, cancer and other diseases.
He mixed the said cure, ‘Divine Healing water’ with DDT to prove its potency while he urged people to purchase it.
The video earned the musician a lot of backlash from Ghanaians with many calling for his arrest.
Mr Lartey noted that the Authority could have imposed an administrative fine of at least GH¢25,000 on the musician for his offense instead of handing over the case to the police which they have already done.
“…the law says if you don’t pay it we can complain to the court and they will make sure you pay and they can jail you as well but because we have handed it over to the police we are going into the area of prosecution”.
Brother Sammy has been granted bail pending the completion of police investigations.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
