Liberia: Ex-VP Howard-Taylor Lawyers Say No Grand Jury Has Indicted Her

Published: September 8, 2026

MONROVIA — Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor walked away from the hearing that would have tested the state’s cocaine-trafficking evidence because the court refused to let her lawyers see that evidence, her legal team said, and it maintains she has still not been indicted by a grand jury.

The statement, issued Monday by the legal team and family, gives the first account of why the defense abandoned the preliminary examination it had itself requested. It says the defense sought the examination to review the evidence used to justify what it called an unprecedented arrest and incarceration, and that the prosecution objected to that level of disclosure and the court sustained the objection.

That ruling, the statement says, denied the defense access to material that could include evidence favorable to her innocence and prevented her lawyers from meaningfully questioning the state’s witnesses. Rather than let the preliminary stage become what it described as a platform for unproven theories without the safeguard of full discovery, the defense moved to trial, where it says pretrial discovery is guaranteed.

The team also disputes the case’s procedural posture as it has been reported and described publicly. “A complaint is not an indictment, and an indictment, if ever returned, would not be a conviction,” the statement says, adding that the government has announced allegations and filed a criminal complaint but that no grand jury has indicted her. It calls the impression that she is already indicted or guilty prejudicial and damaging to the justice system’s integrity.

The statement calls on the government to distinguish allegations from an indictment and a conviction, on public officials to stop what it terms prejudicial pronouncements while the case is before the courts, on the media to verify the case’s procedural status rather than report allegations as proven, and on civil society, religious leaders and human-rights advocates to press for due process and humane treatment. It asks Liberians to remain peaceful. Howard-Taylor seeks no special treatment, it says, only the presumption of innocence and a fair, impartial process.

“Madam Howard-Taylor is innocent of all these charges,” the statement says.

The reason offered now differs from what the defense told the court. In the proceeding, the defense said it no longer needed the examination and that the case should continue.

The preliminary examination was before Stipendiary Magistrate L. Ben Barco at the Monrovia City Court, where the magistrate was to decide whether the state had shown probable cause to send the case to Criminal Court.

The state’s first witness, acting Crime Services Division commissioner Repheal Wilson, testified Sept. 4 that an alleged trafficking network operating between Liberia, Dubai and Nigeria from 2021 to 2024 sought political protection from Howard-Taylor while she was vice president, and that investigators uncovered discussions of a plot to assassinate then-President George Weah. A prosecution investigator has also testified that she received US$15,000 on Aug. 17, 2020, following a request made through Sheikh Bassirou Kante, and has described WhatsApp messages, text messages and audio recordings the state says show her knowledge of the network. None of that evidence has been tested by cross-examination, and no court has ruled on it.

The Ministry of Justice has not responded to the statement.