Monrovia – Environmental lawyer Alfred Brownell has reportedly gone into hiding after some unknown men believed to be agents of the Liberian National Police (LNP) attempted arresting him.
“I was warned to find a secured place for me and my families as there were plans to go to my home and harass my family. Friday night I slept at a secured location. “
“That night I was informed by neighbors that plain clothes men were asking questions about my whereabouts and issuing threats that they would get me and teach me a lesson.”
“I was also warned to cut of my phone as my conversation was being monitored.” Cllr. Alfred Brownell of Green Advocates from his hideout
Brownell, lead campaigner of Green Advocates International until recently represented several communities across Liberia whose rights had been abused by concession companies.
He is a very strong critic of government.
A team of plain clothes policemen stormed Brownell’s office on McDonald Street in an attempt to arrest him.
They threatened to arrest other staff members when he was not found in the office.
Green Advocates International offices have been closed, while members of its staff have also gone into hiding, a former aide to Brownell, Alloycious David said.
David said three weeks ago, a government lawyer contacted Cllr. Brownell by phone, asking him to join a team of government lawyers in supporting a case against Gus Van Kouwenhoven, the former head of the Oriental Timber Company working in Liberia during the regime of former President Charles Taylor.
David quoted Brownell as saying that he refused the request on ground that the that they had been “terrorizing my community’s clients all over Liberia, including threats, harassments and intimidations against me personally relating to my work in the last five years.
“As far as I am concerned, that conversation was closed.”
“Besides, I had serious security concerns because I also knew that this government lawyer (Samuel Jacobs) was a former intelligence officer in former Charles Taylor Police serving under the Criminal Investigation Division (CID),” David quoted Cllr. Brownell as saying.
According to Brownell, early last week a number of his staff informed him that plain clothes men had gone to his office leaving a message that he should immediately contact Cllr. Jacob.
“I did not contact Samuel Jacobs because I was clear that I was not going to take his offer of joining the government team,” Brownell said. He added that he was not aware that Cllr. Jacob and the Justice Ministry team of prosecutors had gone to the court to obtain a subpoena to compel him to provide testimony concerning the Kouwenhoven case.
“They obtained the subpoena but did not serve me a copy of the subpoena. After about four days, Samuel Jacobs and his team went back to the Judge and informed the Judge that I had defied the court orders.
They requested that the Judge [held] me in contempt and ordered my arrest,” Brownell told his former aide from his hideout.
According to him, the government lawyers waited in the late evening hours when the court was closed and “came to execute the arrest order at my office. Fortunately, I was out attending a funeral of my mother-in-law.”
He noted, “after they realized that I was not at the office, they attempted to arrest a number of my colleagues and threatened that they would go to my home to get me.”
Brownell disclosed that he contacted a number of my friends both in and out of the government who informed him that if they had succeeded in arresting him, the plan was to send him directly to prison.
“I was warned to find a secured place for me and my families as there were plans to go to my home and harass my family.”
“Friday night I slept at a secured location. That night I was informed by neighbors that plain clothes men were asking questions about my whereabouts and issuing threats that they would get me and teach me a lesson. I was also warned to cut of my phone as my conversation was being monitored,” he added.