Monrovia – Presiding Judge Blamo Dixon on Tuesday, September 23, endorsed prosecution 44 species of evidence against five Central Bank of Liberia executives on trial for multiple counts including money laundering.
The evidence, according to the prosecution first witness, Baba Borkai Program Manager at the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), include a letter from the Legislature to print the first L$5billion, bills for the shipment of money into the country by Crane Currency AB of Sweden, and letter for the flow of money at the CBL from one vault to another, among others
The decision by the court came after the defense counsel had objected to most of the prosecution evidence.
“The law provides that evidence against the Defendants are passed on to the defense counsels by the prosecution for perusal before the case starts, but this was not done by the prosecution, this is why we rejected to the evidence in question,” stated Cllr. Augustine Fayiah, one of the defense counsels.
But Judge Blamo Dixon, in his ruling, said: “As a judge and jury de-facto it is my authority to study the weight of evidence in the case and make determination therefore I cannot deny the prosecution evidence because it is the ones that I will study”.
The Criminal Court “C” Judge added that the prosecution has the burden of proof to establish the guilt of the Defendants in the trial.
After the ruling, the prosecution called on the Judge to mark the evidence identified by its first witness, and he did.
Prosecution lawyer Cllr. Arthur Johnson announced to the court that it has rested with the testimony of its first witness.
Defense lawyers will now cross-examine the witness, which the court has scheduled for Thursday, September 26 at the hour of 2 Pm.
Witness Borkai before his departure from the stand on Tuesday, September 23 gave analysis of the Presidential Investigative Team (PIT) investigation findings and linked the five CBL executives.
The five CBL officials are indicted for economic sabotage, money laundering, criminal conspiracy and facilitation.
They are former Governor Milton Weeks, Deputy Governor for Operations, Charles Sirleaf, Director for Finance Dorbor Hagba, Director for Operations Richard Walker and Deputy Director for Internal Audit Joseph Dennis.