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 would trust Cllr. Massaquoi, who has acted as the lawyer for accused warlords Agnes Reeves-Taylor and Gibril Massaquoi, to hold the faction for which they fought – the National Patriotic Front of Liberia – to account.
Neither President Boakai nor Jonathan Massaquoi has spoken publicly about the appointment. Cllr. Massaquoi has ignored repeated text messages seeking comment and he refused to speak to this reporter in a visit to the office of his law firm. A press release, purportedly issued by the Office, defending the appointment, was widely publicized but New Narratives/Front Page Africa has been unable to verify that it actually came from the Office. The email address on the release did not work and there was no name. Kula Fofana, presidential press secretary, said in a Whatsapp message “I can’t verify” the document was a legitimate release from the Office of the Courts.
The mishandling of the release and failure of Cllr. Massaquoi and President Boakai to speak publicly have further frustrated civil society leaders who said it was imperative that the Office of the courts be seen to be professional and transparent if it is to win the support of the public and the international donors who will be relied upon to fund it.
Cllr. Massaquoi’s defenders have argued that he is a highly competent, successful lawyer and past representation of accused warlords Agnes Reeves-Taylor and Gibril Massaquoi poses no conflict of interest in his new role as head of the Office of the courts. However, all legal experts are in agreement that his continued representation of them would be an issue.
“That’s a clear conflict of interest,” said Tiawan Gongloe, a leading human rights lawyer. “There should not be any kind of doubt about this role.”
New Narratives/Front Page Africa was unable to find any evidence that Cllr. Massaquoi has recused himself from representing Agnes Reeves-Taylor and Gibril Massaquoi in lawsuits against Liberian justice activists Massa Washington, Hassan Bility and Alain Werner, a Swiss human rights lawyer.
Cllr. Massaquoi did not respond to a text message requesting comment. Officials at the Civil Law Court in Monrovia, where Reeves-Taylor and Gibril Massaquoi had filed cases, could not locate any paperwork to show that Cllr. Massaquoi had recused himself. Bility said he had not received notification from the court that Cllr. Massaquoi had recused himself from the case.
Meanwhile, Cllr. Gongloe, the widely acclaimed lawyer and former presidential candidate, has become the latest human rights advocate to condemn the process to appoint Cllr. Massaquoi. In an interview in his office he said the courts were too important to Liberia not to ensure the process has full buy in from victims, civil society and the public.
“There should have been wider consultations with the civil society, victims and the Bar,” said Cllr. Gongloe referring to the National Bar Association, where he is a former president. “It is the first time in our history that we have done this so it really matters. It has nothing to do with presidential authority or his qualifications. We require support of the wider society. Conversation with civil society was not done. It’s shocking. In the end it’s the victims who need to feel closure on this.”
Cllr. Gongloe said he was concerned that unless the appointment was embraced by victims it could sow seeds of conflict in years to come.
In 2019 Cllr. Gongloe played a lead role in the Bar Association’s draft of a bill for the courts that was submitted to the Legislature and later blocked by President Weah. He was also a leading contender for the role as head of the Office of War and Economics Crimes courts.
Press Secretary Fofana has repeatedly said the president had held consultations with stakeholders on Massaquoi’s appointment. It is not clear which stakeholders she is referring to. Gongloe and other civil society leaders including Hassan Bility, Adama Dempster, former TRC commissioners Jerome Verdier, John Stewart and Massa Washington, all said they had not been consulted.
Cllr. Gongloe refused to make a judgment on Cllr. Massaquoi’s qualifications for the role, focusing instead on the process. He had no problem with Cllr. Massaquoi being one of the nominees to be considered in a renewed selection process. But Cllr. Massaquoi’s experience has been the source of criticism by many civil society leaders including Cllr. Verdier, former Chairman of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
“The international community, civil society, justice advocates and civil society institutions at large ought to have been consulted by Mr. President in making this appointment of Cllr. Massaquoi, who is obviously not the most senior or astute of the elaborate list of credible Liberian lawyers to fill that post,” said Cllr. Verdier in a Whatsapp message. “President Boakai grossly erred to have made this appointment unilaterally, short of consultations with the Moral Guarantors of the TRC Implementation Process, being civil society and the international community.”
Cllrs. Verdier and Gongloe argued there were a number of Liberians who would have been competent to head the office and who should have been considered.
Cllr. Gongloe also criticized the president’s failure to send a letter requesting support to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres before now.
“He should have sent the letter yesterday,” Cllr. Gongloe said.
The clock is ticking. The Office is tasked with drawing up a process for the courts – deciding on logistics such as the location of the court and staffing, raising funding from the international community, and crucially, getting a bill to establish the court through the Legislature – before the executive order to establish the office runs out in 10 month’s time. Advocates also worry that if funding from the United States is not secured before the end of President Joe Biden’s term in office in January 2025, a potential administration under Donald Trump, may not be as willing to support the courts.
Advocates voiced concern that the clouded start to the office, the lack of consultation and activists’ criticism of Cllr. Massaquoi’s qualifications, would undermine the confidence of international donors in the process. Donors are discussing a potential figure of more than $150m for the court. The Liberian government would be able to fund very little of that.
In an open letter to President Boakai the Coalition for Justice in Liberia asked him to withdraw Cllr. Massaquoi’s appointment, saying it “casts doubts on your administration’s commitment to the WECC process. There is an appearance that Mr. Massaquoi was appointed solely to undermine the effectiveness of the WECC[War and Economic Crimes Courts].”
The Coalition warned that Massaquoi’s “appointment will likely sow seeds of discord, and contribute to disunity and confrontation… Mr. President, the important Office of WECC Republic of Liberia should be headed by an attorney whose character and professional reputation are above reproach. The leader of this office ideally should be a lawyer who is respected domestically, regionally, and internationally. Ideally, that person should know international law, and be familiar with other war crimes tribunals. The victims of the Liberian Civil War deserve to be addressed under international law, with the same commitment and dedication demonstrated by similar tribunals elsewhere.”
Two other advocacy groups, the Coalition for the Establishment of War and Economic Crimes Courts in Liberia, and the Human Rights Community of Liberia, said they were “deeply troubled by the appointment of Cllr. Massaquoi” and asked President Boakai to “rescind this appointment and call for a stakeholders dialogue to show his openness and good intentions going forward in the interest of truth, justice and national healing.”
This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of its West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy which had no say in the story’s content.
