Outcome seen as measure of justice system under international scrutiny for bribery allegations
Liberia’s Largest Trafficking Trial Ends in Convictions for All Defendants
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
A jury convicted all eight defendants on all charges Monday in Liberia’s largest human trafficking trial, delivering a unanimous verdict after roughly 20 minutes of deliberation and closing out a case that has tested the country’s justice system under intense international scrutiny.
The defendants were found guilty of trafficking in persons, criminal conspiracy and theft of property; those facing rape charges were convicted on those counts as well. The speed of the jury’s decision came after nearly three weeks of testimony from dozens of the case’s 57 alleged victims, who described being lured with false promises of jobs in Canada, then held for months at a compound in Gbankpa Town, Margibi County, where they say they were beaten, raped, starved and coerced into extorting money from their own families.
The verdict is the first conviction in a case that nearly collapsed before it reached trial. A March investigation by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives revealed that nine victims had accused public defender Bestman Juah of offering a US$7,000 bribe to reduce charges, and accused police investigator Enoch Dunbar of accepting payment to alter victim statements and drop charges — allegations both men have denied. Liberia’s solicitor general, Augustine C. Fayiah, later ordered a separate investigative panel to examine those claims.
The case had also been shadowed by Liberia’s broader record on trafficking prosecutions: the government lost three trafficking cases between 2023 and 2024, and just six of 22 cases that reached Liberian courts since 2020 had ended in conviction before Monday’s verdict. Liberia has spent two consecutive years on the US State Department’s Tier 2 watch list for trafficking enforcement, with a third year risking a cut in American aid.
Four defendants had already pleaded guilty before the verdict. Shelley Jonny struck a deal with prosecutors on June 10, testifying against her co-defendants in exchange for having her charges dropped. Three more — Maxson Wonlebaye, Martherline Tompia and Preston Godfred — pleaded guilty a day later but were denied the same deal, with prosecutors saying their admissions would count only as a mitigating factor at sentencing.
Prosecutors built their case on testimony from victims who identified specific defendants by name, corroborated by rebuttal witnesses in the trial’s final days who directly contradicted defendants’ denials — including testimony that defendant Jerome Genseh took as much as US$18,000 from one accuser under false promises of travel, and Dunbar’s sworn denial that police had taken defendants’ property.
For a justice system that has struggled for years to secure trafficking convictions, and for a government facing pressure from Washington over its record on the crime, Monday’s unanimous verdict stands as a marker of whether the system can hold traffickers accountable even when bribery allegations threaten a case from the inside. Advocates who had criticized the government’s initial handling of the case are likely to point to the conviction as evidence that sustained scrutiny — from journalists, from victims willing to testify, and from prosecutors who ultimately restored dropped charges — can still produce a result.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled, and neither prosecutors, defense lawyers nor victims have issued public statements since the verdict. **This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
