Gbarnga, Bong County – Menipakei Dumoe says he would launch a lawsuit against the Special Court for Sierra Leone “ignoring the rights” of former Liberian president Charles Taylor to be transferred to Africa, where COVID-19 less prevalent.
It can be recalled that Taylor, who is serving a 50-year jail term in a British prison for crimes against humanity, was denied by judges to be moved from a British jail, the place he claimed he dangers dying from COVID-19.
And Dumoe, who is contesting the Senate race in Bong while campaigning for the release of Taylor, said the Special Court in Sierra Leone is “endangering” the life of Taylor and subjecting him to an what he referred to as unnecessary health risks by continuing to hold in Britain, where COVID-19 is ravaging.
Britain recently passed 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 as confirmed The Guardian UK. Dumoe argues that the Special Court for Sierra Leone has so many options, and for that court to insist on keeping Taylor in the UK where he faces a high risk of infection is simply inhumane and falls beneath the standard of international law.
Dumoe said The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the UK government are not above International law, citing the International Human Rights Standards governing the treatment of prisoners, which states “The principal international human rights documents clearly protect the human rights of prisoners. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, without exception or derogation.”
Dumoe has meanwhile owed to sue the United Kingdom and the Special Court for Sierra Leone to the European Court of Human Rights, which is a regional human rights judicial body based in Strasbourg, France.
Dumoe was speaking Monday when he addressed the media in Gbarnga. He used the occasion to dispel rumors that his ambition for the Senate is being supported by Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor. “Those rumors are unrealistic because the bid for the Senate is being financed by the people of Bong who feel disappointed in the current group of leaders – mainly incumbent senator Henry Yallah and Deputy Speaker Prince Moye.
Dumoe’s clarity comes amid recent endorsement of his bid by Howard-Taylor’s campaign team in Bong. Howard-Taylor had said that she won’t support Yallah despite him being the candidate of the Coalition of Democratic Change in Bong.
Howard-Taylor, standard bearer of the National Patriotic Party, a constituent party of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, said Yallah has failed to bring back the dividends of democracy to his people.
There are eight persons contesting the Senate race, namely: former Federation of Liberian Youth President Mohammed Nasser, former executive director of Development Education Network, Dorothy Tooman, former district six lawmaker Adam Bill Corneh, incumbent Senator Henry Yallah, Deputy Speaker Prince Moye, former legal counselor of the Forestry Development Authority, Benedict Sagbeh and Menipakei Dumoe.
