By William Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com
A prominent Liberian Human rights lawyer, Cllr. Frederick Jayweh says deception and entrenched culture of impunity are to blame for the misrule and plunder in Liberia.
This, he says is causing the Liberian people to continue to suffer under successive leaders since the founding of this county.
Cllr. Jayweh, who is currently the Executive Director of the US-based African Center for law, was reacting to attacks on the media in the wake of their reportage of issues of alleged corruption and lack of transparency and accountability by the CDC government.
In a short statement sent to www.newspublictrust.com early this week, he strongly spoke against the degree of betrayal of public trust in government in Liberia.
The Liberian Lawyer also spoke of how state administrators intentionally commit financial and economic crimes and economic sabotage while in public service, simply because they know they will never be made to account for their misdeeds.
“Instead of being public servants, they absolutely become public thieves. Liberia’s so-called leaders will do so because, they know, and truly believe that Liberia will not indict, arrest, prosecute, convict and sentence them for having committed Financial and Economic Crimes in Liberia and Economic Sabotage. Liberia as we all know it, has weak and incapable institutions. From top to bottom, Liberians are Liberia’s problem,” the Liberian human rights Lawyer asserted.
Public institutions in Liberia, he said need to be revamped.
“Liberia as we all know it, has weak and incapable institutions. From top to bottom, Liberians are Liberia’s problem”, Cllr. Jayweh said.
“Absolutely, Liberians are Liberia’s problem. Government after Government and Liberians termed leaders of Liberia, knowingly and intentionally commit financial and economic crimes while their regimes lead Liberia. When these so-called leaders are outside the arrangement of power, they usually pretend to be in cause of the people. When elected by our most needy and disappointed people, then the story is usually changed,” said the Executive Director of the African Center for Law.
He claimed that the Justice Ministry in Monrovia amended the indictment against defendants in the half a million US dollars Sable Mining bribery case involving Senator H. Varney G. Sherman, former National Investment Commission boss, Richard Tolbert, and former House Speaker J. Alex Tyler and others, apparently with the sole intent of setting them free.
“You see and without any color of law, Liberia’s Ministry of Justice, has gone all out to materially amend the indictment that brought criminal defendants: H. Varney G. Sherman, Richard Tolbert, J. Alex Tyler and others to court to knowingly and unlawfully create a doubt to set criminal defendants Sherman and the others free,” said the Liberian Lawyer based in the US.
When contacted for reaction to the US-based Liberian Lawyer’s claim on Thursday January 10,2019, the County Attorney of Montserrado, Cllr. Edward Matins told www.newspublictrust.com that he could not comment on the case in question.
The reason Cllr. Martins gave was that he was one of the lawyers in the Sable Mining bribery case during the former Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration.
Cllr. Jayweh is an international human rights attorney and international law scholar, Counsellor Frederick Alfred Benedict Jayweh is admitted and licensed to practice Law before the Honorable Supreme Court of the Republic Liberia and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.
Currently, he is said to be a candidate applying for admission to the Bars of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Criminal Court, the ICC.