Monrovia — Criminal Court C. Judge Blamo Dixon says the Government of Liberia lost a US$100 million cocaine case due to the failure of the prosecution to draw up the rightful charges against the defendants and produce adequate evidence.
Judge Dixon, who presided over the landmark case said the charges were bogus, leaving the jury with no option but to rule in favor of the defendants.
Judge Dixon made specific reference to the over US$200,000 that was seized from the defendants for which they were charged with money laundering. He said despite indicating in the indictment that the defendants were arrested with US$200,000, the prosecution later informed him that they could only make available US$113,000 which sounded absurd to the court.
"According to the defendant, the money was given to him right in Monrovia, not imported. If you charge them with money laundering, why didn't you bring it to court? The jurors kept asking... The charge that you will impose must commiserate with the evidence. All of the charges were bogus," Jude Dixon said.
The judge made the statement on Thursday when he ruled against FrontPage Africa during a hearing on contempt charges for a "wrongful publication."
FrontPageAfrica had been summoned for its May 19, 2023 publication where the paper, quoting multiple sources, said a sum of US$500,000 was splashed around judicial circles to influence the jury.
But Judge Blamo said there was no money given to induce the jurors. From the prosecution angle, he said the case was marred by missteps, coupled with the prosecution's inability to provide substantive evidence to convince the jurors to hold the defendants liable of the charges levied against them.
'Charges didn't commensurate with evidence'
Despite these concerns by the Liberian and U.S. officials, Judge Dixon, in open court, declared that the charges of money laundering, unlicensed possession of controlled drugs, unlicensed importation of controlled drugs, and criminal conspiracy were wrong and did not commensurate with the evidence shown by the prosecution.
On the money laundering charges, he said the defendant professed that the money was received right here in Liberia and the prosecution gave conflicting accounts of the actual amount of money that were exchanged.
He said the prosecution had earlier mentioned in its charges presented to the court that one of the defendants, Malam Conte, had presented US$200 to induce staff of the TRH Trading to turn over the boxes of cocaine. However, in the middle of the trial, the prosecution rolled back its first statement and said the actual money seized from Conte was US$113,000, leaving a difference of US$97,000. The money in question was never presented or turnover to the court as proof, said Judge Dixon.
Backing his decision to order the government turn the money over to the acquitted defendants, Judge Dixon said, it is a legal practice that when a defendant whose properties are seized is adjudged not guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction, all of the defendant's rights and seized belongings are given back. And this is what he did.
"It is in this light that the jurors found the defendants not guilty. And I ordered the government to turn the money over to the people," he said.
For the charges of unlicensed possession of controlled drugs and unlicensed importation of controlled drugs, the Judge noted the illicit substances were imported into the country by TRH Holding, and long before it arrived, the Global Maritime Tracking System warned the National Port Authority to thoroughly inspect the containers before leaving the Freeport, but it was never inspected. It ended at TRH Trading Warehouse in Tompoe Village, at the outskirts of Monrovia.
The Judge Said the charges could not hold on the ground that Conte did not possess the drugs, since he was arrested when he had gone to receive an item from the container. Conte claimed that he had gone to receive frozen food and not bundles of cocaine. The Judge accused TRH of tampering with the evidence for its failure to devise a scheme to deliver the item to Conte before arresting him.
In addition, he said, the bill of lading form did not bear any of the defendant's name, rather, it carried the name of TRH Trading, the owner of the container in which the drug was found.
According to him, another setback to the case came from the testimonies of Othello Garblah, president of the Publisher Association of Liberia and publisher of New Dawn, James Hinneh, president of the Customs Broker Association.
Othello Garblah's testimony put [a] hole in the Government's case. They told the jurors that the container did not pass through the rightful channel. The Global Maritime Tracking Solution warned the government that the container should be checked," he said.
A look back at the case
In October last year, the joint security apparatus of Liberia in collaboration with its United States' counterpart arrested US$520 kilograms of raw cocaine valued at US$100 million, the largest drug bust in Liberia up to date. The drug was smuggled in a container owned by AJA Group Holdings and TRH, the largest importer of frozen goods in Liberia.
Four people including a Liberian named Oliver Zayzay and three foreigners, Makki Ahmed Issam, Adulai Djalo and Malam Conte were arrested for allegedly attempting to purchase the cocaine, which the government claimed had been smuggled among pig feet from Brazil.
They were charged with money laundering, unlicensed possession of controlled drugs, unlicensed importation of controlled drugs, and criminal conspiracy and sent to court.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Verdict greeted with public outcry
Following a nearly three-month trial at Criminal Court "C", the jurors handed down a unanimous non-guilty verdict in favor of the four defendants, prompting national and international outcries.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean called the jurors' verdict a travesty of Justice, and in an unprecedented move, led the Ministry of Justice in petitioning the Supreme Court to suspend the Lower Court's verdict, but the Ministry's was denied.
Outgoing United States Ambassador Michael McCarthy, addressing the Liberian media said, he was "saddened to see the acquittal of suspects in both the recent human trafficking case and the US$100 million cocaine trafficking case," adding, "While I hesitate to second guess any jury, and I fully admit that I'm not privy to all the details of the prosecution and the defenses, I hope that these acquittals do not send a signal of enforcement to international criminal cartel."
He further stated that from an outsider's perspective, it is alarming that these convictions could not be contained in Liberia, even when the evidence seemed so overwhelming.
The tough talking U.S. diplomat noted that he was also worried about what these developments portend to Liberia's justice sector which the United States government has supported with many millions of dollars and years in capacity development.
