MONROVIA – Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor’s drug case has moved from the courtroom into the court of public opinion. Lenn Eugene Nagbe, chief of staff to former President George Weah, says the state arrested first and is still hunting for evidence. His main proof is simply the calendar: 33 days, he says, without an indictment. Prosecutors insist they hold credible evidence and will take the matter before a grand jury. The stakes, however, reach well beyond one politician’s fate. A drug war that cannot produce an indictment invites doubt, while a collapsed case would unsettle the wider crackdown. Only a grand jury can now settle the argument between the two camps, as THE ANALYST reports.
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Former Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe, now Chief of Staff to former President George Manneh Weah, has launched a blistering attack on the Boakai administration over the continued absence of an indictment against former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor. In a social-media statement, Nagbe described her August 19 arrest as illegal and accused the government of using heavy-handed police tactics to mask what he called a lack of evidence.
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“It has been 33 days and 33 nights since the Boakai administration illegally arrested Jewel. Yet, no indictment crafted, no grand jury convened. Now the government ‘needs more time’?” Nagbe wrote. “You knew you had no evidence, no indictment, no grand jury, why the hell rush to arrest the woman with over 30 armed men like she is some criminal? COMPLETE NONSENSE!!!”
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Nagbe closed his statement with a Liberian proverb: “But we’re here, the Ma who says the baby will not sleep, the Ma sef will na sleep.” The saying warns that whoever sets out to deny another person rest will be denied rest as well, and Nagbe used it to signal that the former Vice President’s supporters intend to keep up the pressure.
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Nagbe’s assertions that the arrest was illegal and that the government lacks evidence are his own claims. They have not been established by any court, and Howard-Taylor remains presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
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How The Case Began
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The case grows out of a July 21 seizure of nearly four metric tons of cocaine in Duazon, Margibi County, which authorities valued at approximately US$317 million (L$57.8 billion). Officials have described it as the largest drug seizure in the country’s history.
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On August 19, security officers stopped Howard-Taylor at Roberts International Airport (RIA) as she attempted to board a flight to Ghana. She was taken to the headquarters of the Liberia National Police (LNP).
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Authorities subsequently charged her with offenses including unlicensed importation, sale, distribution and transportation of controlled substances, drug trafficking, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy and money laundering. Police Inspector General Gregory O. W. Coleman linked her to an alleged international trafficking network connected to the Duazon seizure.
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The government has said the Joint National Security Investigative Team acted under a directive of the National Security Council to prevent her departure. Justice Minister and Attorney General Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh has maintained that the arrest was based on credible available evidence and that Howard-Taylor will be indicted by a grand jury before the case is forwarded for trial.
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Where The Case Stands
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Howard-Taylor was first held at the Monrovia Central Prison, where former President Weah visited her on September 2. On September 4, Criminal Court “C” Judge Ousman F. Feika granted her temporary release on medical grounds, placing her under home detention, restricting her travel and ordering her to surrender her travel documents.
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The court stressed that the medical release was not an acquittal, dismissal or termination of the proceedings. Her lawyers, whose team includes former Associate Justice Cllr. Kabineh M. Ja’neh, have since asked the court to admit her to bail and lift the home-detention and travel restrictions.
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At the Monrovia City Court, the defense withdrew its request for a preliminary examination of the evidence after prosecutors began presenting testimony to establish probable cause, including references to alleged audio evidence. Magistrate L. Ben Barco then ordered the case forwarded to Criminal Court “C”, which has jurisdiction, clearing the way for prosecutors to seek an indictment.
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On September 8, Howard-Taylor’s family and legal team rejected public statements suggesting she had already been indicted or found guilty. “As of this statement, Madam Howard-Taylor has not been indicted by a grand jury,” they said, adding that a criminal complaint is not an indictment and that an indictment, if returned, would not be a conviction.
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Due Process Versus The Crackdown
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The opposition, led by former President Weah and the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), argues that the executive has overreached and is using the justice system as an instrument of political retribution. The government insists the case is part of a determined campaign against drug trafficking that spares no one, however prominent.
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Nagbe’s statement marks a shift in the public battle over the case, moving attention from the narcotics allegations themselves to the procedural standards of the justice system. Liberia’s Criminal Procedure Law requires that persons held to answer be indicted without unnecessary delay, a principle defense lawyers are likely to invoke as the weeks pass.
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By emphasizing the 33 days since the arrest without a grand jury indictment, Howard-Taylor’s camp aims to challenge the evidentiary foundation of the prosecution. The prosecution, for its part, has maintained that it established sufficient probable cause and that its evidence is available for trial.
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As the state works to present its case to a grand jury, the judiciary faces heightened scrutiny over constitutional protections, speedy-trial guarantees and the legal standards required to hold a former high-ranking official. The Ministry of Justice had not publicly responded to Nagbe’s specific claims as of press time.
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