Liberia: Court Summons Rwandan Forensic Expert in Peter Bon Jallah Rape Trial

3 September 2026
The Liberian Investigator (Monrovia)
By Melvin Jackson

A forensic examiner from Kigali has been ordered to appear in Monrovia to testify against a former National Security Agency official accused of raping a 16-year-old boy, putting evidence that Liberia sent out of the country at the center of the case when the trial resumes Sept. 16.

By Melvin Jackson

Criminal Court 'E' issued the order Tuesday, directing Bavugirije Pascal of the Rwanda Forensic Institute to appear at 10 a.m. that day before Judge Wesseh Alphonsus Wesseh Sr., presiding over the August term of the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Assizes 'E' for Montserrado County. Pascal is to testify to a forensic examination report the institute produced in the case against Peter Bon Jallah III and his co-defendants.

The court addressed the summons to Rwanda's Ministry of Justice and to the institute itself. Liberian process does not run in Rwanda, so whether Pascal appears depends on Rwandan cooperation rather than on the order.

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The chief prosecutor's office of the Ministry of Justice's Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Crimes Unit applied for the summons under both subpoena duces tecum, which compels production of documents, and subpoena ad testificandum, which compels testimony. The prosecution is therefore seeking not only to put the Rwandan report in evidence but to have someone from the institute authenticate and explain it, and to expose that person to cross-examination.

The Liberia National Police confirmed last month that it had received the report from the institute and transmitted it to the authorities handling the case. Neither the police nor the prosecution has disclosed its contents, citing the pending trial.

Jallah, a former special assistant to National Security Agency Director Maj. Gen. Prince C. Johnson, was arrested Jan. 7 and charged with gang rape, statutory rape and kidnapping under sections 14.70 and 14.50 of the penal law. The offenses are nonbailable, and he has been held at the Monrovia Central Prison since January. He has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. Two men accused with him have not been apprehended and are charged in absentia.

The complainant, whose mother brought the case to the Liberia National Police Women and Children Protection Section, testified in August that Jallah assaulted him three times between late November 2025 and Jan. 1, 2026, and the court admitted his police statement over defense objection. Investigators have also said cellphone analysis placed Jallah near one of the alleged scenes.

Read the original article on Liberian Investigator.

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