-Takes Sen. Varney Sherman to task for reading the Constitution “upside-down”
By Our Staff Writer
For the second day-running, the embattled Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, Kabinah Ja’neh has taken the Witness stand in his ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate, crying foul play in the way the trial got underway.
Justice Ja’neh said the House of Representatives violated the Constitution by not following the legal procedures required, disregarding the due process of law.
He also said the property he was accused of purchasing was bought in the mid- 1990s at the time he was not even working with the court, let alone being on the Bench as Associate Justice.
“Let me make it clear and simple for the jurors, when I acquired title to the property on Jallah Town road, it was in 1996 at which time I was a worker, an employee of the Free Port of Monrovia. This was 10 years before I assumed a judicial position. So I don’t know how I could have used the authority of a judge and abused that power by acquiring property at that time,” he clarified.
Article 43 of the Liberian Constitution says while a Bill of Impeachment shall originate from the House and the Senate carries out the trial, Legislature, which include both Houses, shall be the one to draw up the procedure for the trial.
“The power to prepare a bill of impeachment is vested solely in the House of Representatives, and the power to try all impeachments is vested solely in the Senate. When the President, Vice President or an Associate Justice is to be tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; when the Chief Justice or a judge of a subordinate court of record is to be tried, the President of the Senate shall preside. No person shall be impeached but by the concurrence of two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate. Judgements in such cases shall not extend beyond removal from office and disqualification to hold public office in the Republic; but the party may be tried at law for the same offense. The Legislature shall prescribe the procedure for impeachment proceedings which shall be in conformity with the requirements of due process of law,” says Liberia’s 1986 Constitution.
Justice Ja’neh has also rubbished allegation by the prosecution that the prohibition Writ issued by Justice Ja’neh to stop two petroleum importers from sending money they had collected for the Road Fund on each gallon of gasoline and fuel.
Srimex is owned by former Liberia FA President Musa Bility and Connex is run by Abdallah Sheriff.
An agreement between the Liberian government and the importers calls for the public would be charged an additional US$0.25 for every gallon of gasoline and fuel they buy at the station.
As one of the reasons they want him impeached, the House of Representatives, believes that Justice Ja’neh’s action as Justice in Chamber at the time was abused of power and gross breach of duty to have issued the prohibition.
That prohibition stopped the Liberian government from collecting the US$27 million.
Meanwhile, Justice Ja’neh and the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grand Cape Mount County Senator Varney Sherman clashed during his cross-examination at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Senator Sherman, himself a career Lawyer, blamed Justice Ja’neh for aiding the two petroleum importers in denying the Liberian people of the US$27 million Road Fund money at the time.
But the embattled Supreme Court Justice dismissed Senator Sherman’s assertion by saying that he got it wrong and that he may have been reading the Liberian Constitution “upside-down.”
Justice Ja’neh also resisted the House of Representatives allegation that he has abused his office on the Supreme Court Bench, said that there was no probable cause for their agitation to remove him from office, something that some observers say amount to a witch hunt.
Article 71 of the Liberian Constitution says the removal of the Chief Justice or any Associate Justice must be based “on proved misconduct, gross breach of duty, inability to perform the functions of their office, or conviction in a court of law for treason, bribery or other infamous crimes.”