Monrovia – Menipakei Dumoe, a senior member of the Coalition for Democratic Change and a strongman of former House Speaker Alex Tyler, has joined prosecutors in the Sable Mining bribery case to call for the removal of Judge Yamie Gbeisay.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
Mr. Dumoe, in an interview with FrontPageAfrica, said Gbeisay has demonstrated a level of incompetence, including the refusal to grant Tyler’s request for a separate trial. According to him, there is no evidence from the prosecutor linking Tyler to receiving bribes.
“My reason for wanting to see the Judge out is his inability to see that Tyler should not be on that bench and for refusing to grant Tyler separate trial because they both have different defenses. We want the Judge remove,” Dumoe said.
Recently prosecutors filed a petition for writs of certiorari due to Judge Gbeisay’s refusal to rescind several rulings which the prosecutors believed were erroneous.
A writ of certiorari is an order a higher court issues in order to review the decision and proceedings in a lower court and determine whether there were any irregularities.
As part of reasons requesting certiorari, the prosecution noted that Judge Gbeisay, without the defendants providing any evidence that the emails and spread sheet presented by the prosecution as evidence were obtained through hacking and mere hearsay, ruled setting the coming of Heine van Neikerk, who gave the instruments to the prosecution to testify in court, would be the precondition for the admission of the instruments into evidence.
Dumoe, one of the many Liberians who have been critical against the Special Presidential Task force, said he believes that there are very strong corroborative evidences provided against Cllr. Varney Sherman, including the inconsistencies between testimonies provided by Dr. Eugene Shannon who claimed that he did not know any of the individuals named in the report from South Africa but contrary to his comments, the prosecution has been able to provide evidence that he received them as guests.
“There has been no evidence against Tyler even the Judge threw out the hearsay evidence against Tyler.
There is no reason why Tyler should continue to be on the docket. I am really bitter against the Judge ruling against Tyler’s request for a separate trial. He should have granted it and this is why I see sense in the prosecution’s call for the judge to be removed – he has made some fundamental blunders.
“For example for not granting Tyler a separate trial because it could be the case that Sherman wrote down Tyler’s name in email that he would have given him and he did not,” he stated.
Responding to question as to why is he aligning with the prosecutors he said: “Prosecutors are not ally of Tyler. This Judge needs to be removed because he has refused to focus on the evidence provided and among them, there has been no evidence to show Tyler received a bribe.”