Monrovia – A Judiciary source very close to the top leadership has told this paper that the Judiciary Branch of Government is not aware of any Impeachment bill against Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh.
Report by Kennedy L. Yangian, [email protected]
The assertion of the source, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, comes nearly a week after two lawmakers of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) had filed a Bill of Impeachment against the Associate Justice.
“We heard about the Bill of Impeachment filed against Associate Justice Ja’neh by two CDC lawmakers in the media but not a single communication has come from the Legislature to the Judiciary informing that body on the impeachment of one of its Associate Justices,” the source added.
The two CDC Representatives Acarous M. Gray and Thomas P. Fallah, who filed the bill represent Montserrado County’s Districts #5 and 8 respectively.
In their impeachment document, Gray and Fallah accused the Associate Justice of several allegations ranging from misconduct, abuse of public office, wanton abuse of judicial discretion, frauds, misuse of power and corruption. Both lawmakers have vowed to prove all their allegations against the Associate Justice.
In one of their allegations, the two lawmakers claimed that in early 2017, Austin Clarke, a private Liberian citizen and businessman, (deceased) is reported to have secured a loan from the Ecobank (Lib) Limited.
According to the lawmakers, records from the Civil Law Court show that Clarke did pay his loan obligation to the bank but because of poor record keeping at the bank he has declared a debtor and was arrested and treated like a criminal.
The two lawmakers further claimed that Clarke not satisfied with the manner in which he was treated filed a lawsuit for damages of US$1m against the bank where the trial jury rendered a verdict in his favor but the bank’s lawyers rejected the verdict and filed a motion for new trial which was held and denied and the Judge, Boima Kontoe, upheld the verdict of the trial jury.
Not satisfied by the Judge’s ruling, the Ecobank lawyers ran to the Supreme Court at the time Justice Ja’neh served as Justice-In-Chamber at which time he allegedly tampered with the case depriving Clarke of justice.
However, the bill has been presented to the Plenary of the lower House on Tuesday, July 17 and later forwarded to a committee for review.
Commenting on the two lawmakers’ bill of impeachment against Associate Justice, a lawyer, who also spoke to this paper but on the basis of anonymity says that the lawmakers ahead of impeachment proceeding against Justice Ja’neh had already adjudged him guilty before trial.
“I read the two lawmakers’ counts in the Bill of Impeachment against Justice Ja’neh if the two lawmakers say that Associate Justice Ja’neh must be impeached for proved misconduct that means that he has been investigated and found guilty,” said the unnamed lawyer.
According to Article 71, “The Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and judges of Subordinate Courts of Records shall hold office based on good conduct behavior, they may be removed upon impeachment and conviction by the Legislature based on proved misconduct, gross breach of duty, inability to perform the functions of their office or conviction in a court of law for treason, bribery or other infamous crimes.”