MONROVIA, Liberia—A Monrovia Court has acquitted a Liberian man accused of trafficking his female compatriot to Oman, following nearly two months of a dramatic trial.
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives
After a little over one hour of deliberation on Monday nine of the twelve jurors who heard the case at Criminal Court “A,” found that government prosecutors had not proven Sawo King Zubah’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It was the first jury to acquit in cases brought against perpetrators of a ring trafficking women to the Middle Eastern country of Oman.
“In view therefore, as per the law controlling, the defendant is not guilty of the charge of trafficking in person,” ruled Roosevelt Willie, the Court’s Presiding Judge. “Hence, the defendant is hereby set free. And it is so ordered!”
A smiling, Zubah, 32, stood to listen to the ruling that restored his liberty, after he spent over a year in jail awaiting trial.
“Every day, fastening and praying….. Nothing is impossible to God,” Zubah told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives in an exclusive interview after the verdict. “By me setting free today from this trafficking case, I am very much happy. I am speechless.”
Government prosecutors said they were disappointed in the outcome. “We think the not guilty verdict of nine persons return in favor of the defendant was improper because it does not commensurate with the evidence presented before them,” said Randolph D. M. O. Johnson, a prosecutor in the case.
This is the first case the government has lost since it began prosecuting leaders of the trafficking ring to Oman. The most notable case saw a landmark 25-year sentence handed to Arthur Chan-Chan, a former agent of the National Security Agency, in January. Chan-Chan is appealing his conviction and sentence. But the state, under Liberia’s criminal procedure law, cannot appeal judgments, so Zubah’s fate has been sealed.
Legal analysts say Zubah’s victory could inspire other defendants to call into question the truthfulness of the government’s cases. But Johnson rejects that charge.
“It’s not actually embarrassing, he said. “It’s part of the practice because, what happens is that what we do as prosecutors is that we are here to prosecute and not to persecute. The process was transparent.”
The case was anchored on the allegation that Zubah, with the help of others, trafficked the woman, whose name has been withheld to protect her from retributions. The woman herself told the Court that she considered Zubah as “a play son,” but that he lied to her that she would work as a maid in Oman and earn US$200 monthly. She claimed to have spent US$800 on her travel process, including allegedly giving Zubah US$250 to “soften the ground” at the Roberts International Airport (RIA). She said she used the money from the sale of her personal belongings to pay for her passport, Covid-19 test and meet other requirements Zubah had laid before before her.
But the woman said she was shocked when she arrived in Oman and was treated badly and contrary to what what Zubah had allegedly promised her. She claimed to have been subjected to inhumane, degrading, and life-threatening treatment during the one month and a half she worked for an Omani household as a domestic servant. The woman also claimed that she was jailed for four months on a bogus accusation of theft, denied food for 136 days and subjected to an attempted rape. She claimed Zubah did nothing about her complaint to him over the matter, but rather threatened that she could be fired from her job.
As he did in Court, Zubah again denied the woman’s allegations in the interview.
“I don’t know what to say. I didn’t traffic her,” said Zubah. “I was very much surprised when she was saying all these lies.”
Zubah did however admit that he escorted the woman and her family to the airport, but said it was on the request of her husband.
“He said, I beg you do that. Secondly, because she didn’t have an Android phone, she gave me her code to do a check for her on the internet. Those were the two reasons I escorted them to the airport.”
Johnson had pleaded to the jury in open court to find Zubah’s guilty on account of his admission.
“By inference, he engaged, he transported, he recruited and facilitated,” Johnson gesticulated in a courtroom packed with journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and family members of the victim and defendant. “A lie is a lie.”
But Zubah’s lawyers questioned the woman’s credibility, as they made a case for their client.
“They said Sawo recruited, transported her. Fake! ‘You (woman) will go into the Guinness Book of Records,’” said Jimmy Bomo, lead defense lawyer. “You are the only person that lived for 136 days without food,” he said as he looked in the direction of the woman, who sat on a long bench, sandwiched between her husband and other family members.
Bombo also claimed that the woman, whose husband is a taxi driver, voluntarily went to Oman to change her family’s fortune.
“She went to look for her own job. It’s laziness that brought her back,” he said. “You cannot be trafficked and then somebody gives you a cell phone and pays you.”
Unlike in Chan-Chan’s case, the jury found the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zubah worked with several Liberian and Omani agents, including one named “Sara” and an airport staffer to traffic the woman to Oman. It remains unclear which position the man holds, or whether like Chan-Chan, he’s a state security personnel, who freely roam the airport. An agent in Oman allegedly named “Princess” was also named.
As in Chan-Chan’s case, defense lawyers raised questions about the prosecution of “low hanging fruit” – individuals with limited, or no power in the trafficking scheme.
“This is a transnational crime. They (government) have the power and resources,” said Bombo. “They can go to Oman and catch Princess, the agent. Why are you allowing Sara to go free? If we are sincere about ourselves, let us go for everyone.”
Cllr. Aloysius F. K. Allison, Director of Felonious Crime at the Justice Ministry, defended their decision to prosecute Zubah alone .
“We had to start our investigation with him first. That does not mean we will not go after the other people,” Allison said. “You must have permanent information in your investigation before you proceed.
Like other human trafficking trials, this one was not short of drama. Zubah’s openly rebuked his first lawyer, Cllr. Sennay Carlor II, who had told the Court that his client had pleaded guilty to the charge. Those exchanges prompted Carlor and all public prosecutors to decline providing legal services to Zubah, citing protection of their integrity and a potential conflict of interest. Subsequently, the Liberian National Bar Association complied with the Court’s order by providing lawyers for Zubah.
Carlor was again summoned over Zubah’s claim that the police had extracted a statement from him in the absence of his lawyer, but Carlor denied Zubah’s assertion. Then, there was a debate over Zubah’s educational status. He had claimed to police that he could not read and write, but on cross examination, he did confess that he could read and write at a rate of 30-35%.
Another dramatic moment came after the Court separately summoned lawyers for Orange and Lonestar/MTN over the call logs of the woman and others she had spoken to about the trip.
Cllr. Wesseh A. Wesseh, then Chief anti-human trafficking prosecutor, now Relieving Judge, who had begun the investigation into Zubah, was summoned over his role in the matter, especially regarding allegations by Zubah and his lawyers that the former had opposed the woman’s plan to waive her complaint against Zubah.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia program. Funding was provided by the US Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.