Monrovia – The indicted former Minister of Commerce Miatta Beysolow is now a free woman after the Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice dismissed her indictment and quashed all charges against her on grounds that her indictment was marred with a gross procedural error.
The dismal performance of the Government of Liberia in high profile corruption cases continues as former Commerce and Industry Minister Miatta Beysolow has been set free of all charges by the court.
The government failed months ago to prove corruption charges pressed against 10 individuals including former officials of the National Oil Company of Liberia, amongst others
The former Commerce boss was brought under the jurisdiction of the court on February 22, 2016 when the Grand Jury of Montserrado County charged her with economic sabotage, misapplication of entrusted property, criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation and violation of the Public Procurement & Concession Commission (PPCC) processes and procedures.
She was indicted by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) along-side the former Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) T. Nelson Williams, Director of Price Analysis at the Commerce Ministry, Steven Flahn Paye, former LPRC Deputy boss for Operation, Aaron Wheagar and the CEO of the Aminata & Sons Inc, Siaka Tulay.
The former officials’ indictment was drawn out based on the sale of a Japanese Oil grant donated to Liberian Government, valued at over US$13M.
According to the indictment, the government and people of Liberia did not benefit from proceeds from the sale of the donation, accusing the defendants of jointly conspiring to rob the country and its people of proceeds from the oil sale.
On April 9, 2016, defendant Beysolow filed a motion through her lawyer Atty. Jonathan Massaquoi, asking the court to give her a separate trial from the rest of the accused on grounds that her defenses are antagonistic and could clash with those of the co-defendants.
Her lawyers also argued that she did not facilitate at any time nor conspired with the other defendants to commit the crimes mentioned in the indictments.
LACC lawyer, Cllr. Othello Pitman in a resistance to the motion for severance indicated that the motion was intended to frustrate and delay the trial adding that it will prejudice the prosecution because a substantial amount of resources will be required to prosecute the case separately, thereby depriving the prosecution the opportunity to establish a conspiratorial link between the defendants and the other defendants.
Following the arguments, the court ruled and awarded the defendant separate trial, claiming that having carefully perused the indictment the defendant’s defense was surely antagonistic to the other co-defendants.
A week later after the court granted Beysolow separate trial her lawyer Atty. Massaquoi again filed another motion to dismiss the indictment against her and quash out the charges, claiming that the indictment was filled with gross procedural errors.
On the other hand the prosecution filed a resistance to the motion to dismiss, claiming that supportive facts in the motion were misleading and were made in bad faith because the report used to indict the defendant with the crimes mentioned knowingly, intentionally and purposely creating an opportunity for the co-defendants to deprive the people of Liberia of millions of United States Dollars.
Ruling on the motion, presiding Judge Emery Paye said the issue before the court for determination was whether or not defendant Beysolow’ lawyers did establish sufficient grounds to dismiss the indictment.
Judge Paye continued that a careful perusal of the case filed it shows that the LACC Investigative Report of August 19, 2013 only recommended that administrative actions be taken against defendant Beysolow but the court wonders why the prosecution LACC ignored the recommendation of its own report to proceed with prosecution.
The Judge further stated that there was a missing link which claimed the attention of the court and that the missing link was the absence of the Ministry of Justice in the prosecution of the case.
“Moreover, this court says that having perused the entire records in the case file, it is convinced that the institution of the said indictment is grossly defective and erroneous, because the prosecution/LACC failed to show any augmented or Investigative Report to warrant the prosecution of the defendant/Beysolow” said Emery Paye.
Presiding Judge Paye indicated that in view of the foregoing it was the ruling of the court that the defendant motion to dismiss is granted and the LACC motion not to dismiss the indictment denied.
“Having dismissed the indictment with which the defendant Beysolow is charged, she is hereby ordered to go without let, molestation or harassment from any quarters in connection with this specific matter, except for other valid matter not in connection to this identical case, and it is hereby so ordered” said Judge Paye.
The dropping of all charges against the former Commerce Minister is another slap in the face of the Government of Liberia which continues to fail in effectively prosecuting corruption charges.
Ten individuals indicted on similar offences economic sabotage, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation and others were set free after the State again failed to prove its evidence against the accused.
The Government continues to spend thousands of dollars indicting individuals with no legal success in these cases.