By Winston W. Parley
The Criminal Court “C” in Monrovia has ordered Liberia’s Justice Minister Cllr. Frank Musa Dean, Liberia National Police (LNP) Inspector General Col. Patrick Toe Sudue, and Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee to produce three persons detained at the Monrovia City Hall.
The court’s order on Thursday, 22 July 2021 followed lawyers’ petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed earlier on the same day against the authorities, seeking to compel them to produce the living bodies of Rose Wreh, Felecia Wreh, and Christiane Toe.
The Writ of Habeas Corpus under the signature of Criminal Court “C” Clerk Knowles W. Shain, Sr., orders the officials to produce the detainees before the court on Friday, 23 July 2021 at 9:00 a.m along with the cause of their detention so that presiding Judge A. Blamo Dixon can make a judgment concerning the detention.
In petitioning the court on Thursday, 22 July 2021, the detainees’ lawyers, Cllr. Finley Y. Karngar and Atty. Alphonsus W. Wolwor requested a writ of habeas corpus because their clients were detained without charge both at the LNP Headquarters and at the Monrovia City Hall at different times since their arrests.
“Since these petitioners were arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, they are yet to be seen by family members and lawyer (s), friends, and love ones,” the counsels said in the petition before the court.
Up to the time of filing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the lawyers complained that since their clients’ arrest on 19 July, they were yet to be charged.
The counsels lamented that the act of the authorities against the detainees amounted to gross violation of their constitutional and statutory rights guaranteed under Liberian laws and international treaties to which Liberia is a state party.
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According to the lawyers, their clients were arrested at their home in Caldwell and then taken to Zone One Deport Two at St. Paul Bridge on Bushrod Island. Following that, the lawyer explained, the detainees were taken to the LNP Headquarters on Capitol Hill before subsequently being placed in the custody of the City of Monrovia.
