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Crime & PunishmentGeneralLiberia news

Mere political witch hunt?

–Gloria Musu Scott’s lawyers brand detention

Lawyers representing detained former Chief Justice Gloria Scott and her three family members have alleged that their client’s detention is a ‘mere political witch hunt.’

The defense lawyers alleged that the State is showing all signs that it does not have any evidence to proceed with prosecution.

Cllr. Scott and her family members Rebecca Youdeh Wilson, Gertrude Newton, and Alice C. Johnson are charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, and [providing] false reports to law enforcement officials.

They were sent to court Thursday, 22 June 2023, and subsequently detained at South Beach, a maximum prison in Monrovia, after several months of police investigation about the murder of Cllr. Scott’s daughter Charloe Musu.

The defendants are accused of using a sharp instrument believed to be a knife to stab the late Charloe Musu.

Charloe’s death in February this year shocked the country and heightened security fears.

She was murdered at Cllr. Scott’s residence after the former Chief Justice reported to police authorities two separate incidents of alleged armed robbery attacks at her home in Brewerville.

Dozens of top lawyers, including impeached Associate Justice Kabineh M. Ja’neh, are defending Cllr. Scott and her accused family members in the alleged murder case.

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On Tuesday, 4 July 2023, Criminal Court “A” Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie denied a motion seeking to bail Cllr. Scott and her three family members to secure their release.

However, Cllr. Scott’s lawyers are insisting that the State is on a malicious trail to simply indulge in wanton misuse and abuse of state power. 

In a five-count Bill of Information filed before Judge Willie, the defense lawyers decried the defiant posture to intentionally neglect to provide the evidence upon which the State relied to prosecute the Former Chief Justice and her family members for murder and keep them behind bars. 

The defense also cited the orders of Judge Willie, mandating the State to provide the defense team with all the species of evidence on or before Wednesday, 5 July 2023. 

The defense team proceeded with a Writ of Certiorari before the Supreme Court to challenge the judge’s order compelling them to provide the defense team with all the species of evidence. 

Interestingly, the defense said, the judge’s ruling has not been made available to the defense team.

It said the ruling formed a cogent part of the prosecution’s writ filed before the Supreme Court.

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