The Case Liberia Cannot Afford to Lose Twice

Part Two of FrontPageAfrica’s series raised two warnings in one breath: that justice is moving at different speeds for different Liberians, and that the evidence behind this summer’s biggest number may already be gone. Either one, left unanswered, could cost this country the case altogether

Liberia has been here before, and not in the way anyone in government seems eager to remember. Years ago, this country prosecuted a case involving cocaine reportedly worth nearly US$2 billion, intercepted with the help of the French Navy. It should have been the defining anti-trafficking victory of its era. Instead, it ended in a not-guilty verdict, because the enormous quantity announced to the public was disposed of before trial, leaving only a small sample for prosecutors to produce, and a defense that simply asked the jury to notice the gap between the number in the headlines and the substance in the envelope. The jury noticed. Liberia has spent years since blaming that verdict on a lenient judiciary. Part Two of this series suggests the more honest target of that blame was never the jury box. It was whatever happened, or didn’t happen, to the evidence before the case ever got there.

WE RAISE THAT HISTORY NOW BECAUSE this newspaper has learned that the record US$317 million cocaine seizure at the center of the current investigation has already been destroyed. We do not know, as of this writing, whether the government followed the exhaustive documentation that destruction of evidence this consequential demands: a full weighing and inventory, individually identified packaging, photographs and video, properly drawn and preserved samples, documented laboratory testing by examiners who can testify, and a witnessed record of the destruction itself. What we do know is that Liberia has already lived through what happens when a government cannot answer those questions convincingly in front of a jury.

IF THIS CASE REACHES a courtroom and the same gap opens between the number Liberians were told and the evidence the government can produce, it will not be a new mistake. It will be the same one, made a second time, with even higher stakes and even less excuse.

THAT IS THE QUIETER, more technical alarm Part Two sounds. The louder one is simpler to state and just as damning: Jewel Howard-Taylor went from an airport stop to a fully detailed, six-day writ of arrest, naming specific cash amounts and a specific foundation. Mark Egon Kuiah has sat named in a writ since June, fired from his post since July, and uncharged with anything a judge could rule on. Jonathan Momolu was questioned once and sent home. Two police officers allegedly tied to physically escorting the drug shipment in question remain unnamed by the government to this day. The government has now proven, conclusively, that it knows how to move fast and specific when it chooses to. That proof is exactly what makes the silence around everyone else impossible to excuse as simply how these things work.

THESE TWO WARNINGS are connected in a way this newspaper suspects the government would prefer Liberians not notice. A prosecution built on rushed, undocumented evidence and a prosecution applied unevenly across defendants both fail for the same underlying reason: a government more interested in the appearance of decisive action than in the unglamorous discipline that wins cases and earns trust. Six days and a detailed writ looks decisive. A press conference with cocaine burning in the background looks decisive. Neither one means anything if the chain of custody cannot survive cross-examination, and neither one means anything if the same speed and specificity are reserved only for the defendant whose name draws the most cameras.

PRESIDENT BOAKAI HAS told Gregory Coleman he has “the full backing of my government.” This newspaper does not doubt that backing is sincere. But sincerity is not evidence, and confidence is not chain of custody.

WHAT THIS MOMENT ACTUALLY requires is far less photogenic than a presidential message or a burning pile of confiscated narcotics: a documented, defensible evidentiary record for the US$317 million seizure, produced publicly enough that Liberians can judge for themselves whether the earlier mistake is being repeated; and formal charges, or a plain public explanation for their absence, against every person this investigation has named, not only the ones whose arrest generates the most headlines. Liberia does not need another impressive press conference. It needs a case that can survive a courtroom, brought against everyone the evidence points to. Anything less, and this newspaper fears Liberians will be reading about acquittals, not convictions, the next time this story reaches its end.

This editorial reflects the views of the newspaper.