Criminal Court “C” Judge A. Blamo Dixon has set today, Wednesday, December 4, 2024, for the commencement of the alleged corruption case involving former Liberia’ s Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah and four others.
Defendants Tweah, Nyanti Tuan, former Acting Justice Minister/Solicitor General, D. Moses P. Cooper, former Controller Financial Intelligence Agency, Stanley S. Ford, former Director of Financial Intelligence Agency, Jefferson Karmoh former National Security Advisor to former President George Weah, were arrested, charged and indicted for the crimes of Economic Sabotage: (Fraud on the Internal Revenue of Liberia Misuse of public money, property, or record; Theft and/or illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money) ; Theft of Property, Money Laundering, Criminal Facilitation and Criminal Conspiracy.
The former officials were indicted by the Liberian Government in September of this year for allegedly stealing LD$1,055,152,540.00 billion and US$500,000.00 during the tenures of their respective positions.
Tweah and the rest of the defendants will be arraigned in open court where they will either plead guilty or not guilty to their indictments. The indictment comes as a result of a complaint filed by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) through the Ministry of Justice against the former officials.
It can be recalled former Solicitor General Nyanti Tuan, P. Moses D. Cooper, Jefferson Karmoh and Stanley S. Ford were arrested and Jailed on July 29, 2024 while former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah left the country. The four officials were later released on bail following their detention at the Monrovia Central Prison.
In late September, Tweah returned to the country and turned himself over to the court accepted and released to his lawyers following a US$8M bail bond, but the case could not proceed immediately after state prosecutors challenged the authenticity of the bond and prayed the court to set aside based on “defective” property statement.
However, after listening to both defense and prosecution lawyers over the validity of the bond, Judge Dixon endorsed the legal instrument on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 after the defense council justified their bond through a cross examination by the prosecution.
It can be recalled that after declining earlier to hear prosecution separate motion of exceptions filed against the US$8 million criminal appearance bond filed by Liberia’s Ex-Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, the Criminal Court “C” set November 14, 2024 for the hearing of prosecution’s separate motion of exceptions and separate motion for justification of sureties.
On October 9, 2024, Judge Dixon declined to hear the separate Exceptions to the Defendants’ Criminal Appearance Bonds and the separate Motions for Justifications of Sureties but government lawyers threatened to file a writ of certiorari against him after failing to hear their notice of exception.
Montserrado County Attorney Cllr. Richard Scott Jr. during the earlier hearing said, why Judge Dixon couldn’t refuse to sign the bond since he claimed that the case was not docketed for the August term of court, he therefore excepted to the judge’s ruling promised to take advantage of the law’s controlling.
Judge Dixon’s rationale behind his earlier decision to decline to hear prosecution separate motions of exceptions was because Defendant Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. and the other Co- Defendants names were not docketed for the August Term of Court, A. D. 2024.
He said the case was not on the docket for the August Term of Court, A. D. 2024 but was transferred from the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Court “A”, Montserrado County, Republic of Liberia, to the Criminal Court “C” on September 6, 2024, same being the 22nd Day’s Jury Sitting, about one month prior; but the Prosecution and the Defense Teams failed to file a motion to advance the case on the docket for the August Term of Court, A. D. 2024.
That is to say, the Judge was out of Term Time or his assignment to preside over the Criminal Court “C”, pending a new assignment from the Chief Justice of the Honorable Supreme Court of Liberia.
The Closing Chambers Session of the Court which is only for Ten (10) Days commenced on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 and the court had already exhausted Eight Days remaining Two Days to close the Closing Chambers Session.
The stage that the Case was on did not fall in the category of cases that require appealing to the Chief Justice of the Honorable Supreme Court of Liberia for Extension of Time.
The judge said that the case is a new one with the indictment drawn up on September 5, 2024 by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County, Republic of Liberia, sitting in its August Term, A. D. 2024; therefore, the court was poised to have the it docketed for the November Term of Court, A. D.2024; in the absence of the Motion to Advance the said Case on the Docket for the August Term of Court, A. D. 2024. The filing of such motion is late and moot.
By T.Q. Lula Jaurey
