The former Solicitor General of the Republic of Liberia, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, has written His Excellency President George Manneh Weah to inform him that his democratic gains are being grossly undermined by the current wave of economic sanctions being imposed by the United States government on a number of officials of his government.
According to Cllr. Cephus, the Weah administration is on the verge of leaving power with a horde of “falsely decorated corrupt officials”, which he suspects will not only overshadow Weah’s democratic credentials on the world stage but could later hunt and hurt him so badly that his future bid (if will ever happen again) for the highest office in the country could become a laughing stock.
In an open letter to President Weah, Cllr. Cephus said, “As I indicated from the onset, and which obviously led you to receive a counter advice from your Justice Minister Frank Musa Dean to ‘play low’ and let the sanctioned officials, including me, to ‘cry their own cry’, this thing is getting serious, and it is all happening around you and yet there is no action taken, which is why every sanctioned official looks like a ‘convicted criminal’, although without trial.”
He beseeched President Weah to immediately commission a Panel of International Experts, chaired by ECOWAS and co-chaired by a Liberian, with members drawn from the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA), the African Bar, the European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and, at least, a retired official from the United States Office on Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) and an observer from the African Union (AU) to investigate these sanctions against core officials of his government.
The former Solicitor General reiterated his innocence of what he was accused of, but pointed out that his mere denial or dismissal of the allegations, as in the case of other officials, is not sufficient to set him or anyone free until he can have his day in court, which is a cardinal Constitutional benchmark of due process under Liberian law.
“I trust that Your Excellency will not again sweep this suggestion under the carpet, because I believe and which is now true that the proverbial ‘town trap’ is not for ‘rat alone’. How sad is it that so many ‘rats’ have been caught and others are apprehensive and jittery and scurrying for cover because they do not know where the ‘chips may fall’ next. This is a crude lesson that we all must learn as we await our fate!” Cllr. Cephus’ open letter to President Weah observed.