In the ongoing trial of former officials of government facing corruption related charges, a fifteen-man panel jury will be selected after being vetted by prosecution lawyers. The jurors are to be called as per their numbers given to each of them by the Jury Management Team and each would be expected to answer to his or her number. This is done to hide the identity of jurors in a case.
Who are jurors in a case?
Jurors are a group of ordinary citizens selected to listen to evidence presented in a court case and decide the outcome based on the facts, determining whether a defendant is guilty or not in a criminal case, or liable or not liable in a civil case; most essentially, they are the fact-finders in a trial.
As the selection will be done today, February 24, 2025, the jurors will hear evidence from both sides of the case, weigh the evidence presented, and reach a verdict based on their interpretation of the facts.
The jurors are chosen randomly from a pool of eligible citizens within the jurisdiction of the court, and are expected to be unbiased and make their decisions solely based on the evidence presented in court.
In the case of the alleged “sabotaeurs” which is expected to kick off today at the Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia, both government and defense lawyers will select the 15-panel jury.
On February 19, 2025 during a closed door meeting with Criminal Court C Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie, government lawyers presented pieces of evidence to defense lawyers as was requested last week during a pre-trial conference.
Prosecution presented documentary evidence in their possession to the defendants through their lawyers and the court.
Base on the production of the pieces evidence presented, defense lawyers during the conference requested the court for a jury trial when they had previously rejected a jury trial prior to the Supreme Court Chamber Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay ordering Judge A. Blamo Dixon to recuse himself from the case after allegedly being compromised.
The selection of jurors is expected today, Monday, February 24, 2025, and those who will be selected will be stationed at the Temple of Justice till the end of the trial based on state lawyers’ request to the court for the jurors to be sequestrated.
State lawyers said they have submitted some pieces of evidence in their possession to the court, and will also share other subpoena documents with the defense counsels as they go along with the trial.
Recently, prosecutors have been playing tactics in submitting their evidence in the ongoing trial of the former government officials facing economic related charges. Criminal Court “C” on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, cited the both parties to a pretrial conference for discovery of evidence after state lawyers failed to produce the evidence against the accused persons. With this, Judge Willie gave the prosecution a seven-day ultimatum to turn over evidence in their possession to the defense lawyers for revision.
Following the recusal of Criminal Court “C” Judge A. Blamo Dixon from presiding over the trial, Criminal Court ‘A’ Judge Willie took possession of the matter thus requesting prosecution to present their evidence against the accused former officials.
Judge Willie told both parties that after the evidence is turned over to the defense lawyers, there will be a pre-trial conference leading to the commencement of the trial. The trial was expected to officially kick off on February 12, 2025, but due to the prosecution’s failure to turn over evidence to the defense lawyers, the matter was postponed to Wednesday, February 19, 2025.
On January 2, 2025, Chamber Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay ordered Judge Dixon to recuse himself for being compromised following a writ of certiorari filed against him. According to our judicial reporter, discovery of evidence in a criminal trial is a compulsory requirement prior to the commencement of the trial.
The Criminal Procedure Law Chapter 17, Section 17.2 titled “Pretrial Examination of Books and Records”, says that the court, on motion, may direct books, papers, documents, or other things designated in a subpoena duces tecum, be produced before the court at a time prior to the trial or prior to the time when they are to be offered in evidence, may upon their production permit such books, papers, documents, or other things or portions or parts thereof to be examined and copies thereof to be made by the parties and their attorneys.
Former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, Nynati Tuan, former Acting Justice Minister/Solicitor General, D. Moses P. Cooper, former Controller Financial Intelligence Agency, Stanley S. Ford, former Director of Financial Intelligence Agency, and Jefferson Karmoh, former National Security Advisor to former President George Weah, were indicted for the August Term Of Court with the crimes of Economic Sabotage: (Fraud on the Internal Revenue of Liberia Misuse of public money, property, or record; Theft and/or illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money) Theft of Property, Money Laundering, Criminal Facilitation, and Criminal Conspiracy.
On Friday December 20, 2024, former Liberian Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr. and the other defendants pleaded in one voice “not guilty” to their alleged corruption charges after the indictment was read to them, thereby joining issue with the state.
The ex-officials were indicted by the Liberian government in September of 2024 for allegedly stealing LD$1,055,152,540.00 billion and US$500,000.00 during their tenure at their respective positions.
The indictment was as a result of a complaint filed by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) through the Ministry of Justice against the former government officials who were arrested and Jailed on July 29, 2024.
By T.Q. Lula Jaurey
