Lawyers prosecuting former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah and his co-defendants have asked Judge Blamo Dixon of Criminal Court 'C' to postpone the trial until after he has recused himself from presiding over the matter, arguing that Dixon is conflicted.
The trial on charges of economic sabotage (fraud on the internal revenue of Liberia; misuse of public money, property or record and theft and/or illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money, Tweah is facing, was scheduled for Friday, December 20.
During that hearing, the prosecution was expected to provide all of the most basic discovery in the case to the defense team, a request by the judge.
Unfortunately, that did not happen; instead, the government lawyers filed late Thursday the motion for Dixon's recusal, accusing him of being biased and conflicted.
The defense team has yet to respond to the request for Dixon's recusal.
The prosecution's motion urged Dixon to recuse himself from the trial, and because most of his statements from the onset of Tweah's US$800 million property valuation bond hearing formulated an opinion, allegedly making him incapable of acting impartially in the case.
In one instance, the motion cites a statement claim that Dixon made when he says, "the defendants are entitled to benefit from bail upon their recognizance because they were high profile, Government officials."
In this statement, the prosecution argued that even though the defendants did not mention their respective past government positions, Dixon had formulated an opinion and was, therefore, incapable of acting impartially in the case.
Another issue the prosecution raised is that, on Wednesday, November 20024, Tweah's surety, Mr. Patrick Coleman, admitted, both on the Re-direct and Re-cross, that the properties that he proffered as bond owed taxes to the Government of Liberia.
Admittedly, they argue by law, they should disqualify said properties from being used as bonds. But. Judge Dixon ignored the defects in the bonds and proceeded to endorse them, "thereby showing bias."
"It has been a settled principle that the Courts shall not do for party litigants what they should do for themselves, instead, Judge Dixon showed bias and prejudice when he applied Article 21 (d) of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia to the cause of the Defendants, when the Defendants did not ask him for such application."
At the reading of the mandate of Chamber Justice of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Judge Dixon, as soon as he saw the defendants' lawyers, commenced proceedings before and well in advance of the time set in the Notice of Assignment. This happened when the Prosecution, in keeping with the Notice of Assignment, had not arrived-arguing "another show of impartiality that is prejudicial to the interest of the State."
Before that proceedings, the Supreme Court's Chamber Justice Yarmie Quiqui Gbeisay lifted the stay order he had initially placed on the court's proceedings due to the prosecution's request for reversal of Dixon's decision to grant Tweah and his co-defendants the bond.
Justice Gbeisay subsequently authorized Dixon to resume jurisdiction over the matter, the reason for the December 20 proceedings.
Judge Dixon had repeatedly argued that his decision was based on Article 21 (d) of the 1986 Constitution, despite the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) contention that he was in error when he granted the bond and prevented Tweah from going to jail.
That article says, "All accused persons shall be bailable upon their recognizance or by sufficient sureties, depending upon the gravity of the charge, unless charged for capital offenses or grave offenses as defined by law. Excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed, nor excessive punishment inflicted."
Another postponement of the case was in September after Tweah surrendered himself to the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court.
That proceeding did not happen based on an excuse that all of the lawyers at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) were attending a workshop in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, which by then made it impossible to attend the proceedings.
It can be recalled that during the hearing in September 2024, Judge Dixon mandated the prosecution to turn over to the defense team all pieces of evidence in its possession to satisfy the requirements of notice of discovery. Unfortunately, Cllr. Johnson argues that the prosecution has refused and neglected to disrespect the Court's order for discovery, arguing, "This is contemptuous."
Further to his objection, Cllr. Johnson argues that the prosecution is engaging in "delay and dilatory procedure tactics."
"This evidence by two unmeritorious letters of excuse by the MoJ under the signature of the Montserrado County attorney, Cllr. Richards Scott," Johnson noted.
He, however, told the court that such excuses must be prevented at any hearing as provided under the Liberian law.
He said the law provides for the prosecution to appear in court to argue its excuse in the presence of a judge and not dictate in a letter sent to the court.
According to him, when the party files the request, such should be served on the adverse part. as a notice of requirement, that is, the defense team. It must be first heard and granted the excuse. Moreover, Johnson explained that when the request is made, to the court for a continuous, the party making such request cannot dictate the time and date for the continuous.
"In the minds of the defense, constitutes contempt because it attempts to signal that the prosecution is playing the role of a judge, not a prosecution," argued.
Johnson said the request is flimsy and attempts to employ procedural delay tactics and complete disrespect to the court and to defeat the ends of Justice.
"This is an abuse of the due process rights of the defendants including Tweah," Johnson argues.
According to Johnson, it was the same prosecution that was announced to the world and the Liberia jury by media and a public sentiment that Tweah was escaping Justice and that there was an Interpol alert issued by the government against the defendant, but with all of this assertion, the defendants are yet to be indicted.
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"The only desire and intent of the Prosecution was to see Tweah disgraced and incarcerated as their way of Justice, but not to accord a speedy and fair trial under the laws of Liberia," Cllr. Johnson told the court.
All of these delays are coming months after Tweah and his co-defendants were indicted, and weeks of legal skirmishes have delayed the commencement of the case, which action, one of the defense lawyers, Cllr. Arthur Johnson has repeatedly described it as "an abuse of the due process rights of the defendants."
Tweah along with Cllr. Nyenati Tuan, then Acting Minister of Justice, and Acting Chairman of the National Joint Security, Stanley Ford, former Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), Director General & member of Joint Security Council, and D. Moses P. Cooper, former Comptroller, FIA, in the discharge of their duties as officials of the National Joint Security of Liberia and the Financial Intelligence Agency, did conspire, collude, facilitate and commit the Crime of Economic Sabotage (Fraud on the internal revenue of Liberia; Misuse of Public Money, Property or Record and Theft and/ or illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money.
The court's document alleges that, between September 8-21, 2023, transfer instructions documents submitted to the LACC Investigation by the CBL, shows that the total amounts transferred to the Operational accounts of the FIA by the CBL as per the instruction from the MFDP are L$1,055,152,540.00 billion and US$500,000.00.
