Monrovia – The Liberia National Bar Association President, Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe’s recent comment against the Supreme Court’s role in the impeachment saga of Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh have come under sharp criticism from another member of the Bar. Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi of the International Law Group (ILG) termed Cllr. Gongloe’s comments as contemptuous.
On Monday, March 11, at program marking the formal opening of the March 2019 Term of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Francis Korkpor stated that the high court was facing a challenging time in the wake of the impeachment trial of Associate Justice Ja’neh by the Liberian Senate as the proceeding was unprecedented in the history of the country.
“It is no secret, this Court is going through a challenging time; we cannot ignore this. The impeachment trial on-going at the Legislature involving Justice Ja’neh, a member of this court is, unprecedented in the history of our country,” said Chief Justice Korkpor who also stated that to the best of his recollection no impeachment proceeding in this country that has taken a form of a full blown trial before the Senate as in the case of Ja’neh.
Commenting on his role in the impeachment trial of Ja’neh, the Chief Justice added that his role is based on a constitutional mandate but he has heard and read and continue to hear and read many accusations, innuendoes and speculative views about his role in the process and some of these views are coming from people who ought to know better.
“As the matter is being tried I will for now refrain from making any substantive comments regarding my role but assured that in the end, the full truth will emerge,” said Chief Justice Korkpor.
However, Cllr. Gongloe, speaking at the same program in his capacity as President of LNBA, indicated that the high court was facing a challenging time in the impeachment proceeding because the it failed to interpret Article 43 of the Constitution and that the current impeachment proceeding of Justice Ja’neh is being held by the Legislature out of defiance of the Supreme Court’s alternative Writ of Prohibition issued on that body.
According to Gongloe, LNBA under his watch, will not support and cooperate with the court as long as it does not perform its duty as the custodian of the country’s democracy, peace and security.
Cllr. Gongloe concluded by saying that the court shares the blame for the more than 250,000 people that were killed in Liberia during the civil conflict and that had the court played its part well in the past, Liberia would not have descended into conflict and urged the current Supreme Court Bench not to allow itself to be similarly judged in the future.
Following Cllr. Gongloe’s comments, over the weekend, Cllr. Massaquoi told this newspaper that the LNBA statement was contemptuous to the high court when he accused the court of sharing the blame for the deaths of 250,000 people in the civil war without providing any evidence or mentioning any instances as a lawyer and that such statement has the propensity to cite the citizens against the court.
Cllr. Massaquoi added that the law provides that the Chief Justice should preside over impeachment proceeding and that Chief Justice Korkpor is doing exactly what the Constitution provides.
“As Supreme Court lawyers, we disagree with Supreme Court’s opinion as provided under the law but we don’t question the high court’s opinion as Gongloe has done. His action is out of order and is contemptuous,” said Cllr. Massaquoi.
According to Cllr. Massaquoi, LNBA is not an advocacy or civil society organization; adding: “LNBA was established to provide legal education and information to the public.” He further stated that the comments from Cllr. Gongloe have embarrassed lawyers under the Bar. The Liberian lawyer added that every aspect of the impeachment proceeding of Ja’neh that was brought before the court was heard and passed on and what is taking place now is the political aspect, which the court has no control; adding: “What lawyers need to do now is watch the proceeding and await its outcome.”