Bestmah Juah, facing investigation over multiple allegations of bribery, featured in promotional material for a training of county lawyers run by UN agencies under the EU-funded Spotlight initiative in May, two months after the allegations were made public by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives.
Summary:
- Victims and anti-trafficking advocates are urging Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. to rescind this month’s appointment of Bestman Juah to a key government post after he was accused of paying bribes to protect traffickers found guilty this month in the country’s largest human trafficking case.
- Victims alleged Juah offered a US$7,000 bribe to a prosecutor to reduce and remove charges and was being paid $500 a week to protect traffickers; Juah denies wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the accusations are under investigation.
- Advocates warn the Chief Justice’s appointment of Juah could further undermine confidence in Liberia’s justice system.
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
Victims of Liberia’s largest human trafficking case and anti-human trafficking advocates say they were “shocked and disappointed” by Supreme Court Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. appointment of a lawyer whom numerous victims have accused of “being on the payroll” to protect human traffickers in the country.
In a memorandum issued on July 1, Chief Justice Gbeisay Sr. appointed Bestman Juah, to head the Public Defenders Association of Liberia, a government-backed program that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford to pay. In his new role, Juah will oversee the program assigning public defenders to represent indigent clients in civil and criminal cases.
“The people that won the case they now elevate them?” asked P., one of the victims whose identity FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is withholding because of fears of retaliation, speaking in Liberian English. “I am very, very disappointed in him. I feeling bad.”
The case, with 57 victims, ended this month with the conviction of all 11 defendants. The jury took just 23 minutes to reach the verdict. Eight received 50-year prison sentences—the longest ever imposed in a Liberian human trafficking case—while the remaining three were sentenced to 20 years, with half of each sentence suspended. The traffickers were ordered to pay a combined total of US$131,500—US$120,000 in restitution to the victims and US$11,500 in fines.
The case only made it to trial after FrontPage Africa/New Narratives exposed the victims’ allegations and the fact that the charges had been reduced or dropped all together in some cases. A delay in prosecuting the case had meant the accused traffickers had become eligible for bail.
Numerous victims in the case alleged in police statements and in interviews with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that Juah had offered a US$7000 bribe to a prosecutor while the case was before the Paynesville Magisterial Court in September 2025, to reduce or drop the charges. Though the prosecutor is alleged to have refused the bribe, the charges were reduced and removed when the charge sheet was released. This caused suspicion to then fall on Enoch Dunbar, the head of the anti-trafficking unit at the Liberian National Police, who was in charge of writing up the charges.
Victims said the traffickers repeatedly claimed they enjoyed protection from influential officials. According to nine victims, their captors boasted that police were “in the business,” that government officials were “in their pocket,” and that the case would never make it to trial because they paid Juah US$500 a week to protect them.
The bribery claims were not litigated during the trial, but in an interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives at the start of the trial in June, Sumo C. Kutu Akoi, one of the
government’s lead prosecutors, said the state had opened an investigation.
Convicted traffickers are escorted from the courtroom after sentencing earlier this month. Victims said they had boasted that they “owned the government” because they were paying Juah to protect them. Credit: Anthony Stephens/New Narratives.
Juah and Dunbah denied any wrongdoing when New Narratives approached them after the initial investigation. Juah did not respond to a subsequent request for comment on the investigation or on calls for his appointment to be rescinded.
The Supreme Court is not the only body to have ignored the accusations against Juah. In May, two months after the allegations were published in March, Juah was tasked with training county lawyers and court officials on how to run sexual and gender-based violence cases by the UNDP, UN Women and UNFPA, under the EU-funded spotlight initiative. Chief Justice Gbeisay was also in attendance at the event held in Ganta, Nimba County. Juah has also continued in his role as president of the Public Defenders Association.
Victims and anti-trafficking advocates argued that promoting Juah risks further eroding public confidence in Liberia’s dysfunctional justice system and sends a troubling message to survivors seeking justice.
In response to questions sent by WhatsApp Ceasar Slapeh, director of communications for the judiciary said the justice Gbeisay was unaware of the probe, saying if it was being conducted by the prosecutor’s office, under the direction of the justice ministry, the courts or the judiciary would not normally be informed of that investigation.
“The Ministry of Justice is under the executive branch,” said Slapeh in a WhatsApp message. “Whatever investigation that is ongoing or done, as long as the matter is not before any of our courts, we absolutely have no interference or don’t even need to be aware. So, Cllr. Juah’s allegation above could also serve same.”
Even though Akoi had acknowledged that it was the government’s role to investigate allegations of state bribery that had potentially perverted a major criminal case, Slapeh encouraged those making allegations against Juah now to undertake private legal action themselves in order to pursue justice.
One of many signs at the Temple of Justice, the seat of Liberia’s judiciary, discouraging bribery.
“Under this Chief Justice, I can assure you that, the judiciary is becoming more trustworthy and as long as the matter is before our courts, justice will be served,” he said. “They all just need to be patient to have their case on the docket.”
The allegations have angered survivors, who said they nearly prevented one of Liberia’s most significant trafficking prosecutions from ever reaching court.
“Da something to make me happy?” asked P.T. “Not good news there for me. The man was taking pay. That our money they was using to pay the man. It’s no lie.”
M., another survivor, also called on the Chief Justice to reconsider the appointment.
“The elevation of Bestman [Juah] is something that comes as a disappointment to me,” he said. “Juah is one of the persons the people involved in this dubious act always boasted with his name. They always said they were paying him to defend them.”
When he took office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nearly a year ago, Gbeisay pledged zero tolerance for corruption within the judiciary. He followed that pledge with a series of reforms, including installing CCTV cameras at all major court facilities, creating hotlines for the public to report corruption and erecting anti-corruption signs in judicial buildings.
Slapeh said the installation of CCTV cameras in courts and the creation of a nationwide monitoring and evaluation team showed that Gbeisay “will not bend on corrupt practices” and were part of “an action plan to demonstrate transparency in the judiciary.”
M. urged Gbeisay to live up to that pledge by suspending Juah’s appointment pending the outcome of the prosecutor’s investigation which M. said would find Juah guilty. “He shouldn’t give him the job.”
One of the trafficking survivors, who said the convicted traffickers boasted that Bestman Juah was their lawyer and that the government and police were “in their pockets.”
Anti-human trafficking advocates have taken up the victims’ demands for accountability saying the appointment sends the wrong signal at a time when Liberia is seeking to strengthen its fight to protect Liberia’s poorest from the growing scammer industry.
“We have to look at the concern of the citizens because the Chief Justice is working in the interest of the citizens,” said Zokerseh B. Saye, executive director of the Liberia Anti-Trafficking Scam and Victim Support Initiative, a press conference held at their Sinkor office recently. “We are talking about an individual who has always been in the habit of preventing justice for vulnerable people.”
“Given the critical role of the Public Defense Program in representing vulnerable Liberians, these concerns deserve an independent and transparent review to protect the integrity of our justice system.”
Saye said his organization had formally written Chief Justice Gbeisay asking him to reconsider the appointment. In a separate interview, Saye said his organization had documented complaints from human trafficking survivors stranded in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other countries who had accused Juah of working with the traffickers.”They are willing to come to testify against him,” Saye said. “There are a lot of victims that we have access to that this guy caused not to get justice. It will serve as a serious threat to our operations and the fight against trafficking in the country.”
Zokerseh B. Saye claims Juah’s appointment could affect the integrity of Liberia’s judiciary.
The controversy comes as public confidence in Liberia’s judiciary remains fragile. The Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia, the Liberian chapter of the global transparency organization Transparency International, said in its 2025 State of Corruption report that confidence in the Judiciary had fallen sharply from 33 percent in 2024 to 16 percent in 2025. It described “a confidence gap concentrated specifically in the Judiciary,” one of the institutions responsible for investigating, trying and punishing corruption. It also found that court services remain among the public services most widely perceived to be affected by corruption, reflecting what it called “an enduring public perception that corruption cuts across the most essential areas of daily civic life.”
It also comes as the country awaits the latest Trafficking in Persons report from the US State Department. Liberia has spent two years on the “tier 2 watchlist” meaning it could face a cut in US aid if it does not improve this year.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.
