Monrovia – Senate Secretary Nanborlor F. Singbeh on Wednesday afternoon attacked FrontPage Africa judicial reporter Augustine T. Tweh for photographing him.
Journalist Tweh was assaulted by defendant Singbeh three times in his chest and demanded his photo be deleted at all cost.
Singbeh had gone to the court to be arraigned for trial in his alleged corruption saga where he is accused of allegedly stealing US$5M from two Czech nationals, Pavel and Martin Miloschewsky.
Defendant Singbeh attacked the FPA Reporter when the reporter pulled out his camera and photographed him twice outside of the court where he and several other Defendant had gone to plead guilty or not guilty to the State’s indictment levelled against them on several counts of criminal charges.
According to eyewitnesses, Singbeh was seen hitting the journalist on his chest, demanding the reporter to delete his photos from the camera, which the journalist refused to do.
After several hits, he managed, with the help of his security to forcibly take the camera from the journalist pocket. “After taking his photos, he walked to me asking me to delete the photos. I refused to delete the photos, so he started hitting me in the chest. With the help of his security, he managed to take the camera forcibly from my pocket,” Journalist Tweh lamented.
Following the incident, the Judge of the court Blamo Dixon and Montserrado County Attorney Edwin Martin intervened and ordered the photo of Singbeh deleted from the camera of the FPA Reporter.
Judge Dixon and Martin actions have been condemned by the leadership of the Association of Judicial Reporters of Liberia as a strange practice on the part of Judge Blamo Dixon who is currently the Judge of the Criminal Court *C* at the Temple of Justice, *This is a strange practice, we will not take this action lightly, we condemned it and will seek redress with the requisite authority to ensure that this action is not repeated* said Abednego Davies President of AJURL and reporter Daily Observer Newspaper.
Wednesday’s hearing of the case was suspended due to a request from the prosecution to have the case assigned to the November 2020 Term since the 42 days Jury sitting of the August 2020 Term had since expired.
This is not Defendant Singbeh first attack on reporters since his indictment by the Grand Jury of Monsterrado County for theft, economic sabotage, criminal facilitation and conspiracy. during the August 2020 Term. At one point of his trial, Singbeh was seen wasting water on reporters outside of the court to prevent them from photographing him.