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It was an emotional scene yesterday at an Accra Fast Track High Court, Human Rights Division, when the wives of five soldiers who have been on remand over allegations of murder, broke down and wept uncontrollably as their husbands were being sent back to custody. The women broke down and wept as the incarcerated soldiers, namely Sgts Michael Arthur, Richard Somuah and Lamptey Hazel as well as Cpls Charles Ankumah and Emmanuel Antwi, were being escorted by the police and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) operatives into a waiting vehicle. Some of those weeping were comforted by relatives who could not come to terms with what was happening and waved at the soldiers who came to court in plain cloths. The BNI and Police produced the accused persons before Justice Irene Danquah, the trial Judge, who had ordered the BNI and state to bring them to her court in a habeas corpus writ filed by the wives of the soldiers, challenging the basis of their continuous detention. They were said to be held in connection with the murder of Roko Frimpong, former Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) who was murdered in cold blood at his home in Tema. Getrude Aikins, acting Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), admitted that the procedure followed by the state was not proper and said they sought to correct the error by going to court for a remand order. She said the people who arrested the applicants were military police and not lawyers. She however disagreed that the state had acted contemptuously and said the issue was both so sensitive and complex that the suspects would be released if investigations revealed that they had not done anything unlawful. Ms Aikins said the soldiers were in lawful custody as the case against them was quite sensitive and explained that they must be kept in custody to ensure that they did not interfere with investigations. She gave the assurance that the applicants would be produced anytime the court needed them and prayed the court for two to four weeks� adjournment, to enable them conclude investigations. The case was adjourned to December 15 for a ruling on the habeas corpus. Joe Aboagye Debrah, counsel for the wives of the accused persons, in his submission, noted that the application for habeas corpus was founded on the fundamental human rights of a person as provided in Article 12 and 14 of the 1992 Constitution. According to him, the applicants after their arrest, were unlawfully detained for some days without any charge being preferred against them. He said they were kept in custody without recourse to their constitutional right and a military report on their case did not say exactly when they were arrested but it seemed to suggest they were arrested somewhere in June 2007.Furthermore, he stated that the applicants were recently arrested on November 12, and November 14, 2009 and noted that the state had even admitted that an illegality took place and sought to have it cured by going for a remand warrant on December 1, 2009, just a day before the habeas corpus hearing. Explaining further, he said just as the habeas corpus was served on the state, prior to the hearing of the application, the state quickly took the soldiers to court to seek a proper remand, accusing the state of acting in extremely bad faith. Counsel said the suspects were kept for more than 45 hours without recourse to law and prayed the court to grant the application. Kwaku Paintsil, counsel for Sgt Emmanuel Antwi, also associated himself with the submission of Mr. Debrah and said the state acted in a contemptuous manner, adding that the military report on the case seemed to suggest they were allegedly trying to undermine the redenomination exercise. He said Mr Frimpong was also deeply involved in that exercise and noted that the state must not be allowed to act on allegations or mere suspicion and that the soldiers should have been sent to a Magistrate Court but not a Circuit Court. The acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Aikins, told the court that the five soldiers were on Tuesday taken to an Accra Circuit Court where they had been remanded and explained that they were now in lawful custody. The soldiers had been in detention for 16 days after they were arrested by the BNI in collaboration with Military Intelligence. A few days ago, the Crusading Guide newspaper published a story that said the soldiers were believed to have been arrested in connection with subversion and not murder as alleged. Already, some persons had been arrested and were standing trial in connection with the murder of Mr. Roko Frimpong and this only made the story murkier.The applicants were represented by Vincent Aikins, Joe Aboagye Debrah and Cynthia Ofori.