Ghana player’s rape charges weren’t disclosed in entry application: docs

Ghanaian World Cup squad member Thomas Partey has gone to Canada’s Federal Court in a bid to overturn a decision denying him entry to Canada over charges of seven counts of alleged rape and one count of alleged sexual assault that the star midfielder faces in the U.K.

A representative of the court told Global News the emergency hearing has finished but the judge has yet to render a decision.

The last second hearing comes a day before Ghana is set to open their World Cup campaign in Toronto against Panama.

Court documents obtained by Global News shows the Canadian government denied entry to Partey, Ghana’s assistant captain, due to the charges he faces in the U.K.

Under Canadian law, a foreign national can be denied entry if they are facing serious charges in another jurisdiction that are deemed to carry a sentence of at least 10 years in prison in Canada.

Court submissions by the immigration department argued the decision that Partey is “inadmissible is reasonable given the detailed and graphic allegations of sexual violence.”

London police have charged Partey with seven counts of rape, accusing him of both vaginally and anally raping two women between 2020 and 2022, and of sexually assaulting a third woman in February 2022.

In Partey’s submission to the Federal Court, his legal team argued he should be admitted to Canada because he has pleaded not guilty to the charges, with a trial set for June 2027.

Partey lawyers also argued he should be admitted to Canada because he has received a visa to enter the United States, where Ghana’s other two group state games are taking place and where the team is currently training.

Those claims were dismissed by immigration department lawyers, who said: “The reputational and practical consequences (Partey) currently faces flow primarily from the fact that he has been charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault in the U.K, not from Canada’s application of its immigration laws.”

Court documents also show that Partey did not fill out his own Canadian immigration form seeking entry, instead leaving it to a Ghana Football Federation Official.

That official said Partey had never been arrested or been charged with a crime, despite the serious charges he faces in the U.K.

Under Canadian law, if an individual does not accurately fill out an immigration form, they can be denied entry into Canada for up to five years.

If Partey is unable to get a temporary visitor visa to play in Wednesday game, Partey’s legal team is asking he be granted temporary residency permit in Canada.

Court documents also include a three-page letter from the Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to the Canadian immigration minister asking that Partey be granted a visa.

“It would be a source of lasting appreciation to the people of Ghana, and a fitting expression of the friendship between our two countries, that a young man entrusted with a national duty, is permitted to stand among his compatriots and represent his nation upon the field,” Ablakwa wrote.

That sentiment was shot down by government lawyers, saying Partey’s “interest in attending a single, time-limited professional engagement in Canada, however important it is to him or Ghana’s team, does not outweigh Canada’s public interest in the careful, consistent application of its serious criminality inadmissibility regime.”

Partey has represented Ghana 58 times international and currently plays his club soccer for Villarreal in Spain, having previously played for Arsenal in the English Premier League.