GBARNGA – A Bong County court said it will hear the case against four suspected timber smugglers who operated at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).

By Wilmot Konah, with The DayLight

Last week, Judge George S. Wiles Jr. denied a dismissal motion filed by a lawyer representing two Chinese Chaolong and Guoping Zang, a Turkish national Mehmet Onder Erem and their Liberian partner Terrentius Tidiboh Collins also known as Terrence Collins.

Defense lawyer Nathaniel Innis, Sr. had argued Forestry Development Authority’s board did not approve the lawsuit.  

But Judge Wiles of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County said the petition was unlawful.  “For a party asserting claim not to have legal capacity to sue, it must be done in accordance with our law and practice,” read the ruling.

The FDA is suing the men for a 12-month prison term, US$25,000 and the forfeiture of their equipment. The court has seized the equipment and thousands of timber the men left at CARI.

The suspects deny any wrongdoing, saying they operated legally.

The case is likely the first since the Regulation on Confiscated Logs, Timber and Timber Products was formulated six years ago.

The trial starts this Thursday at 2 pm.

This story first appeared in The DayLight and has been published here as part of an editorial collaboration. It was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ).