Bruno Amah is unjustly languishing in a rat-infested prison in Togo, West Africa, sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit. He is living under appalling sanitary conditions in a prison built to house 600 men, now home to 1,800, an easy target for the Coronavirus, which threatens to wipe out the entire prison population with repercussions for the nation.

How did a respectable Christian, telecommunication executive, husband, and father of 3 children, find himself imprisoned for life and accused of a most heinous crime of murdering young women and trafficking their blood?  

In September of 2011, a rash of ritualistic killings occurred in Agoué, a northern suburb of Lomé, the nation’s capital.  More than a dozen young women between the age of 12-36 were stabbed to death and their sexual organs removed. Voodoo is widely practiced in Togo; blood and sexual organs are essential to their occult rituals.

 The community demanded a culprit, and the police gave them one in the person of  Kpatcha Simliya, a notorious criminal and pathological liar (according to a court-ordered psychiatric examination of the prisoner) who had been recently freed from prison. He immediately pointed the finger of accusation at Pastor Antonio Monterio, Bruno Amah, and two other men he accused of human blood trafficking.

Similya was paraded in front of the media to publicly denounced them. The police orchestrated a raid with the press in tow, searching the house of Monterio, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor,  and the church’s administrative headquarters where he worked.  Amah, also a church member, had his home searched under the lights of the television cameras.  The police were in search of large vats of human blood, but they found no evidence. It was a media sensation. The leading newspaper and other media outlets made it headline news.  Their faulty case was built on one man’s testimony—Similya. Yet, they were arrested and, for 14 days, forced to remain stark naked holed up at the Anti-Gang Station until they were transferred to a civil prison in Lomé.

Ironically, it was Monterio and Amah who had tried to help Similya find food, shelter, and employment after his most recent release from prison.  Similya had become a baptized member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church while in prison, and both men felt they had a moral obligation to help him.

The torturous wait for justice began; they were arrested on March 16, 2012. During this wait, Monterio and Amah ministered to their fellow prisoners and brought them the light of hope in Jesus Christ. Before the trial, Similya admitted that he had lied because he had been tortured by the police and forced to give the names of his partners in crime.

Finally, the case came to trial, and on January 13, 2014, the court issued a mixed verdict. The two pastors were acquitted, but Amah, Similya, and the other men were sentenced to life in prison.

Despite the hardships of prison life, Amah remains confident that God will deliver him. He is doing a great work in prison! Many inmates have turned from a life of sin and vice and now embrace the love of Christ. Amah has been instrumental in building a new chapel for the prison.  If under these horrid circumstances, he continues to shine for the Lord. Imagine, if released, what a blessing he would be to his country and even the world.

Amah is sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Sign this petition and ask Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo, to release this innocent man.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to keep silent."

"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos 5:24