PHOTO: Defendant making the allegation, Malam Conte
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- In his testimony in open court, defense first witness in the US$100 million cocaine case, Liberia’s biggest narcotic drug syndicate, Malam Conte, a Guinea Bissau National has claimed that he was stripped naked, tortured before being put in the prison cell.
“They also tortured me in the night and I was kept without food and water and I was also stripped Naked for a week,” defendant Conte told court and jury.
Defendant Conte said he arrived in Liberia on September 19, 2022 to make a gold business after being invited by a man only identified as Gustavo, but he told him (Gustavo) that he didn’t have command of the English language.
Last week, the Lawyer of the suspects in cocaine case, Cllr. Wilkins Wright Wright claimed that the defendants currently standing trial are all victims who were wrongly arrested. ‘Wrong People Arrested In US$100M Drug Case,’ Says Defense Lawyer – News Public Trust
According him, Gustavo advised him that Liberia is a country where the official language is English and he Conte asked Gustavo to find someone he has confidence in and who speaks the English language and it was at that point he came in contact with Adula Djalo.
Defense witness Conte on direct examination on Thursday April 13,2023 said, when they arrived on September 17, 2022, they searched for a hotel to be accommodated and they succeeded in being lodged at the Royal Grand Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia. And he said several days later, Gustavo also arrived in Liberia and joined them at the hotel.
After a while, the hotel informed them that their reservation had expired. But they decided to move over to the Boulevard Palace Hotel where, they spent a number of days, after which Gustavo asked them to look for potential importers of frozen food here in Liberia.
“We decided to do the search asking for some entities herein the city of Monrovia that import frozen food and following the search, we met the entity THR that in our minds was one of the best importer of frozen food here in Liberia and after Adula Djalo was there with us asking for the price of the frozen food. After which, Djalo informed us that the entity had a bigger capacity of importation and they showed that the entity has the necessary quantity that they needed,” he added.
On October 1,2022, about 10am, we met Gustavo and he me a big bag in the car that had US$200,000.00 to do the payment at the entity and he was informed that people there was waiting for him and when he reached there, he was allowed to enter in the room where there were more than six Lebanese men and one of them introduced himself as the Director of Commence for the company.
Defendant Conte further said that he saw Issam Makki and other person whom I don’t know and the business was done in his present and it only left the payment of the money and to collect the receipt and return.
When they checked the money, certified that it was correct, they took me to cashier to take the money from their safe but after some minutes, the cashier returned with a paper in his hand that was to be the receipt for the payment and presented it to the sale manager and he tap signal it and give it to me.
“I was seated on the bench and waiting for the receipt and after some minutes, the manager of the company received a call and was speaking in Arabic language he stayed on the phone for more than ten minutes and after such conversation he sent to call the cashier and I saw him coming back and placed the bag with money on the desk which was the same bag I brought with the money and he also made a sign that he wanted to go and come in order to wait for him,” defendant Conte testified in court.
Mr. Conte noted that after some minutes, he entered with a man in the office and sent the worker for the bag with the money.
“Following that Samuel Nimely was seated on the side when the sale manager sent for the bag he showed that he couldn’t leave and Samuel Nimely who had a pistol with him told me to take the bag in a force manner and after that I open the door. And he told me to follow him down stairs but when reached down stairs, we met two persons who also supposedly were with arms and the manager of the company who Samuel Nimely asked me to enter into his car in a forceful manner with two armed men, one sitting on my left and the other on my right.”
Conte testimony continued: “We left the office and I didn’t know where they were taking me and then I saw the things that were not good because I was seated in the middle of two armed men and one driving was also with armed and they were taken me to a place that I didn’t know I took my phone and informed Djalo what was happening, because I tried calling Gustavo at the moment it was not going.”
“We went directly to a warehouse and when we reached there, they ordered me to get down from the car they open a warehouse and after some minutes I saw some from car car some cars at the place and they enter a warehouse and begin to put cartoons outside and at that point, I know that something was happening especially when I saw them opening the cartoons outside and they were talking about drugs but I knew it was a set up then I call Adula and told him that we came to this country to do a business; clear and normal but what I am seeing at the moment it was nothing good for us if he could leave.”
Defendant Conte also maintained that after they got through taking the boxes from inside, there were also persons there recording, and his two phones were taken from him in the presence of Samuel Nimely.
And after that, he explained that some security agents arrived that were identified as persons of the American Embassy who were recording and they opened the bag that “had the money, confirmed it and place it before me and handcuffed me”.
“I was again taken to the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency where they tied my face with black T-shirt and put me in cell after which they made a statement and force me to signed it,” defendant Conte added.
Liberian state security and the prosecution are yet to respond to the allegation of torture being made by defendant Conte.
UN human rights convention forbids torture
Torture is strictly forbidden under United Nations convention and this is stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) signed and ratified by dozens of UN member state including Liberia, ollowing the second World War in 1945.
Article 5 of the UDHR says: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”