Author: Anthony Stephens

MONROVIA, Liberia— Leading advocates of war time justice for Liberia have welcomed criticism by Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey, in this year’s Independence Day oration, of the process to appoint Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as executive director of the War and Economic Crimes Courts Office.

  The Finnish government has awarded €390,000 ($US426,00) in compensation to Gibril Massaquoi, the former Sierra Leonean rebel leader acquitted in January of war crimes and crimes against humanity prosecutors said he committed during Liberia’s second civil war between 1999-2003. The payment covers Mr. Massaquoi’s loss of liberty and income during the protracted judicial process, which spanned four years.

Monrovia – The US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice has condemned Mr. Alan White, an American former investigator for the Sierra Leone Special Court, and a group of activists for making unsubstantiated allegations against leading human rights activists in a Congressional committee hearing in Washington D.C. last month. Mr. White had alleged to US members of Congress that the human rights advocates had bribed witnesses who appeared in war crimes trials in Europe and the US in recent years.

MONROVIA, Liberia—The leader of Liberia’s powerful National Bar Association, the professional organization of the nation’s lawyers, has joined the growing list of civil society and victims’ groups that have condemned the process by which President Joseph Boakai appointed Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as executive director of the Office of War and Economic Crimes Courts.

MONROVIA, Liberia—Finance Minister Boima Kamara has said health issues were the cause of his absence from duty over recent months leading President Boakai to request his resignation as reported by Front Page Africa on Monday. Front Page Africa/New Narratives have learned that in a closed-door UN donor meeting on July 3 the minister confided his illness was, in fact, related to his mental health.

Monrovia – President Joseph Boakai has taken the first step in inviting international support for the establishment of Liberia’s War and Economic Crimes Courts by sending a letter to António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, requesting financial and technical assistance for the courts. Requesting UN support is a crucial part of making the courts a reality.

In a hearing at the Ecowas Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria, the Liberian government has asked the court to dismiss a $US1.5 million lawsuit accusing it of dereliction of duty by not investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre in Monrovia, committed by soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia during the country’s first civil war in 1990.

By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia—After a bad start to the launch of the Office for the War and Economics Crimes courts human rights advocates are demanding President Joseph Boakai redo the selection process for the role of executive director. President Boakai announced the appointment of Liberian lawyer Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as head of the office nearly two weeks ago. The appointment was met with an outcry from civil society actors and victims groups who said they had not been consulted in the selection and vetting process. They also questioned whether the country’s hundreds of thousands of victims…

By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia— Justice activists have expressed anger and disappointment at President Joseph Boakai’s appointment of Jonathan Massaquoi as head of the Office for War and Economic Crimes Courts for Liberia. They said Massaquoi’s role as lawyer for former warlord Agnes Reeves-Taylor in cases against justice activists will undermine public trust in the war crimes and economics crimes courts and risk the country’s security. Reeves-Taylor, 59, spent eighteen months in a UK jail awaiting trial on charges of torture and conspiracy to torture allegedly committed during her time as leader of her husband Charles Taylor’s…

MONROVIA – A historic trial between survivors of the infamous St. Peter’s Church massacre and the Liberian government at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria, has again been postponed after the Liberian government asked for more time to prepare for the case. This is third the time that the case has been postponed on the government’s request, with Thursday’s adjournment coming after previous ones in November 2022 and the other in January 2023. Due to its late response to the allegations of survivors through their lawyers last February, the court granted their request for time to respond…