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Cummings’ trial takes another dramatic twist

State lawyers make another request after suffering setback

The trial of opposition leader Alexander B. Cummings took another dramatic twist on Tuesday, April 12, when the presiding judge rejected requests of state prosecutors seeking travel documents and WhatsApp messages of Mr. Cummings.

State Prosecutors had requested that Mr. Cummings be made to produce his Liberian passport with an American visa and Whatsapp text messages in the trial involving the alleged alteration of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) framework document.

But Magistrate Jomah Jallah of the Monrovia City Court said state prosecutors’ request for Mr. Cummings passport was beyond the court’s jurisdiction and that the request for Whatsapp text messages from its service providers is also outside the bailiwick of the court.

The Alternative National Congress (ANC) Political Leader, its National Chairman, Senator Daniel Naatehn, and Secretary-General Cllr. Aloysius Toe are facing trial for forgery and criminal conspiracy for alleged alteration of the CPP framework document.

Mr. Cummings has repeatedly rejected and denied the charges describing them as bogus and politically motivated, and as part of conspiracies between the All Liberian Party of Benoni Urey and the ruling Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) with ulterior motives.

Meanwhile, State Prosecutors led by the Solicitor General Cephus have again made two requests for the court to extract the four pages of WhatsApp text messages, it produced and included upon demand by ANC defense lawyers. 

State Prosecutors on March 30, 2022, admitted to omitting the four pages of text messages and conversations between July 2, 2020 – and July 18, 2020, from the evidence presented in court, and said the pages were inadvertently extracted.

ANC Defense Lawyers in countering the request said it would be irregular and a serious reversible error on the part of the Monrovia City Court to order the removal of the four pages of social media text messages following its ruling on March 30, 2022, marking it as evidence in the trial. ANC Defense Lawyers said the four pages of extracted text messages discovered and later ordered included are crucial to vindicating the ANC Political Leader and others of the charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy.

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Regarding State Prosecutors’ request to postpone the trial for the third time, twice for their unavailability and the third due to the claimed “illness” of State witness Theodore Momo, it was vehemently objected to by ANC Defense Lawyers and rulings were reserved by the Court in all instances.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/cummings-reassured-supporters-we-will-be-vindicated/

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The New Dawn is Liberia’s Truly Independent Newspaper Published by Searchlight Communications Inc. Established on November 16, 2009, with its first hard copy publication on January 22, 2010. The office is located on UN Drive in Monrovia Liberia. The New Dawn is bilingual (both English & French).
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