Monrovia – Hungchi Choi, a Korean Businessman and an alleged victim of a recent armed robbery attack, has accused the City Solicitor Amos K Sengbe of the Brewerville Magisterial Court of manipulating his case.
“The two robbers were arrested and taken to the Monrovia Central Prison on December 1, 2021; but I saw them out in the community on December 4, 2021. So, who freed them from prison without a court trial? I blame the City Solicitor, who never carried the assignment upstairs but lied to the Judge that I had dropped the case, when I did not,” said Choi
He explained that when he saw the robbers in the community, he called the City Solicitor to find out who had freed the robbers; according to him, the City Solicitor had said it was the Ministry of Justice, which did.
“I think the City Solicitor is lying, so he should be prosecuted for lying and tempering with an armed robbery case,” the Korean national said.
When this newspaper contacted City Solicitor Sengbe via mobile to get his side regarding the allegation made by Korean national Choi, he said he had no comment.
“Whenever we have a matter in court, we cannot talk to anybody about it, so I cannot say anything regarding the case,” said city Solicitor Blama.
In order to get clarity in the case, Cllr. Wesseh A. Wesseh, Assistant Justice Minister, told FrontPage Africa that the case is being investigated by the Solicitor General’s office. He disclosed that the suspect’s parents have signed for them to be released on bill until all probable cause can be established that it was an armed robbery case before, then they will be charged and send for trial. “Because the police did not go in details regarding the case, so this is why the SG office is investigating the case,” said Cllr. Wesseh.
Choi also accused the Police Investigator in the case. Officer Gabriel Sudue, brother of Police Inspector General Patrick Sudue, is the Zone 6 CSD Commander. Choi accused Officer Sudue of alleged covering up and reducing the crime, when he charged the defendants with what he (Choi) termed as “a minor crime of criminal trespass.”
“Commander Sudue said that there was no evidence, there were no witnesses, and there was no damage, so he had no choice but to charge the criminals with a ‘criminal trespass.’ They confiscated the weapons from the alleged criminals. With the above facts, the investigator is a bad police officer. This is ‘abuse of power’ or ‘neglects of duty’. Therefore, I want LNP to please punish the investigator if he is wrong. When the police arrested two (2) suspects, there were two women who stopped me and threatened me and then one suspect in a white t-shirt escaped.
Answering to alleged allegations leveled against him, Zone 6 CSD Commander Gabriel Sudue said when the police arrested the men in Choi Fence; the men said they were brushing grass when they heard Choi crying for help, so they jump over the fence to help him. And Choi push his curtains aside and took photograph of the men who had cutlasses in their hands, but
“When the police brought the men to the depot, they did not bring them with weapons. When I asked the men how they entered Choi’s fence, they said they jumped over his fence to help him, so I charged them with criminal trespass. But the most astonishing part about the whole thing is that when the police knocked at the gate in the morning, it was the same two men who Choi called armed robbers opened his gate for the police. So I do not know why Choi is accusing me when Central asked my office to recuse ourselves from the case and they were going to open a new investigation into the case,” he said
The Korean businessman has joined some Liberians who do not trust the justice system, including the police.
July this year, Officer Gabriel Sudue was accused of defying justice by releasing a murder suspect, John Johnson, who allegedly killed his wife Korpo Matadly in Brewervlle. The alleged murder suspect was rearrested during Liberia’s Thanksgiving celebration in November after the Independent National Human Rights Commission had stepped in.
Explaining his ordeal further, Choi narrated that on the night of the robbery on October 21, 2021, he recalled the dogs were barking and then he heard the sound of a man jumping down into his fence, and then the other two men jumped over the wall and entered his fence after the first man. He said he heard a voice calling the name “Ousmane” and then they started hitting his door.
“They surrounded the house and started shouting ‘Korean man! We know you are inside! Come out! And then they started to threaten me. I started calling someone and my landlord, called Zone 6 Police depot and they sent two police officers to my fence. At that time two women stopped me and were insulting me and making noise and then the criminal wearing a white t-shirt jumped over the fence and ran away. We, police officers and I carried the criminals and weapons to the Zone 6 base. Police confiscated the weapons (cutlasses) from the two defendants, and two police officers investigated and photographed the crime on the day of the incident,” he said.
According to Choi, damages caused to his properties amounted to US$11,180.00. In his breakdown, he included a 7KVA Generator (Yamaha Engine), the value is US$2,500; tools for machines, he values at US$4,200; industrial wire for four cold storages, valued at US$2,700; stainless iron panel and bars, value at US$300; spoiled cold room (door, pipes, etc.). He put the value at US$42,000 and ten bales of leather bags, the value is US$2,000.
Other items Choi said were damaged at his place were ten bales of used clothes, the value is US$400; seven bales of comforters, valued at USD280; battery for solar energy (Rocket), the value is US$100; household items (Knives, cookers and cooler, the value is US$700.
Meanwhile, Choi has thanked authorities of the Liberia National Police, for rescuing him from the robbers and arresting them.