Liberia: “Sanctioned officials and families will have a Lifelong Ban from United States” – U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Rodriguez

MONROVIA – The Chargé d’Affaires at the United States Embassy in Monrovia Catherine Rodriguez said all sanctioned officials and their families will be banned for life from entering the United States.

Last week on Friday, December 8, and Monday, December 11, the U.S. Government sanctioned several Liberian officials including Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee, Finance Minister and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah, Senate Pro-Tempore Albert Chie, and Senator Emmanuel Nuquay, along with their spouses and minor children using the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and authorities under section 7031(c) for visa restrictions.

Mayor of Monrovia, Jefferson Koijee, was designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818. The order targets individuals engaged in serious human rights abuses and corruption. Koijee, in addition to human rights abuses, has been accused of corrupt acts such as bribery and misappropriation of state assets. He is alleged to have pressured anti-corruption investigators to cease all corruption investigations.

For Tweah, Chie, and Nuquay, they were accused of abusing their public positions by soliciting, accepting, and offering bribes to manipulate legislative processes and public funding, including activities in the mining sector. The immediate family members of the designated individuals, including spouses Delecia Berry Tweah, Abigail Chie, and Ruthtoria Brown Nuquay, as well as Tweah and Nuquay’s minor children, are also included in the sanctions.

In her media press roundtable, Chargé d’Affaires Rodriguez said calling out corruption and human rights abuse is a Biden Administration foreign policy priority that is advanced globally, and in these most recent cases, the designations were the result of the official’s individual actions, not those of a political party or the country itself.

“For those individuals who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under Global Magnitsky, they and their families will no longer be able to utilize the U.S. banking system and they and their families will have a lifetime ban on visiting the United States,” she said.

“For those sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State under Section 7031(c), they and their families will have a lifelong ban from entering the United States. 7031(c) provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.”