PHOTO: Disgraced Ex-SG Cllr. Cephus today doing normal lawyering at Civil Law Court ‘B’
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- The Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) under the current leadership of Cllr. Sylvester Rennie continues to remain tight lipped and some legal critics say it has even turned into toothless bulldog.
Since the US Ttreasury Department sanctioned two of its members, Cllr. Saymah Syrenius Cephus, former Solicitor General and Cllr. H. Varney Sherman, who is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and members of the LNBA, the Bar’s leadership is yet to make a public statement on the matter.
LNBA is an umbrella organization that govern the moral and ethical conduct of lawyers in Liberia.
Senator Sherman is one of Liberia’s senior Lawmakers and one of the veteran members of the Bar, who has spent decades in Academia as Professor of Law at the state owned University of Liberia.
On December 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted corrupt actors and their networks across several countries in Africa and Asia, including Cllr. Sherman.
On August 15, 2022, former Solicitor General Cephus was accused of bribery and facilitating money laundering in a US Treasury Department report. Shortly thereafter, he was suspended from his post by President George Weah.
“Sayma Syrenius Cephus (Cephus) is the current Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia. Cephus has developed close relationships with suspects of criminal investigations and has received bribes from individuals in exchange for having their cases dropped. Cephus has worked behind the scenes to establish arrangements with subjects of money laundering investigations to cease investigations in order to personally benefit financially. He shields money launderers and helps clear them through the court system and has intimidated other prosecutors in an attempt to quash investigations. Cephus has also utilized his position to hinder investigations and block the prosecution of corruption cases involving members of the government. Cephus has been accused of tampering with and purposefully withholding evidence in cases involving members of opposition political parties to ensure conviction.”
The Liberian National Bar Association under the leader of Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe was robust and was always in time of making public statements concerning major issues of national and legal concerns, when it became necessary.
But ever since the sanction of Cllr. Saymah Syrenius Cephus on August 15,2022, by the US for alleged public corruptions, the LNBA is yet to initiate an investigating into their grave charges against its own members. Neither has the leadership of the Bar made any public statements on some heavily criticized laws passed recently by the Legislature.
In recent times, the National Legislature has passed the amended dual citizenship law and also passed a pension bill for themselves among several bills which led to public outcry but the LNBA yet to make public statements on these national issues.
In the wake of the scandal, Cllr. Cephus on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 was seen during his normal lawyering activities at the Civil Law Court ‘B’, pleading cases.
The former Liberia Solicitor General briefly disappeared from the public after his US sanctions were announced, but he is now fully back in the legal fold pleading cases as a private lawyer in the Bar.
Legal analysts say the action allegedly committed by the sanctioned lawyers in violation of three key rules of the Bar.
Rule 1: it shall be unprofessional for any lawyer to advise, initiate or otherwise participate directly or indirectly in any act that tends to undermine or impugn the authority, dignity, integrity of the courts or judges thereby hindering the effective administration of Justice.
Rule 2: it is unprofessional and highly criminal for a lawyer in a case to converse privately with the judge presiding in connection with the case either on trial or pending trial or in any way communicate with the judge in an attempt to influence his judgment and for the judge himself to allow or encourages such conversations or receive a perquisite for his judicial duties or for him to assume an attitude as would unreasonably delay the hearing of the case in the hope of receiving perquisite directly or indirectly for his judicial service.
Rule 39: it is expected to every member of the the legal profession be he a judge or a practicing lawyer under the professional oath he has taken to support the constitution of the Republic of Liberia and uphold the laws of his country and rules of all courts to stand firm and committed to the enforcement of those rules through courts and the ethics and grievance committee of the National Bar Association set up by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia.
Several lawyers at the Temple of Justice, including Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi of the International Law Group, have frowned on the LNBA for not taking corrective steps against their sanctioned members.