PHOTO: Alex Yonly, INCHR Local Coordinator
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
The Coordinator for the Grand Gedeh County chapter of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR), Alex Yonly has frowned on the persistent use of “Sassywood”or trial by ordeal by some local government authorities, despite its abolition by law in Liberia.
This practice of torture is also forbidden under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The use of the traditional practice by some zoes and elders to extract confession or to institute justice is common in mainly southeastern counties including Grand Gedeh, with victims often losing their lives in the process.
Mr. Yonly describes this as grave human rights violations taking place in the county, especially where victims are arbitrarily arrested, detained and denied trial as alarming.
The Internal Affairs Ministry which barred the practice has so far remained tight lipped on the development despite continuous reports of people dying as a result of trial by ordeal, Yonly said.
Mr. Yonly is particularly disheartened that sassywood is being defiantly administered despite the existence of magisterial courts in the county that are capable of adjudicating cases they are handling through the traditional practice.
In a separate development, the Grand Gedeh County INCHR Coordinator has spoken against the Justice Ministry’s handling of a matter involving a 22 year man who was reportedly tortured at the AB Davis Funeral Home in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County
Deadly chemicals used to embalm corpses were said to have also been used during the victim’s ordeal.
The local of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights said since a trial venue change motion was granted and the case transferred to Nimba, “the Justice Ministry has so far failed to prosecute said case”, with the victim slowly dying of the chemical wounds he sustained during the attack.