Former Solicitor-General Sayma Syrenius Cephus wants international investigative bodies including the international criminal court to examine US financial and economic sanctions imposed on more than half dozen of the outgoing George Weah administration.
Sanctioned by Treasury in August 2022 for alleged corruption, the former chief prosecutor said the US government action is undermining the reputation of the Coalition for Democratic Change government.
“I hereby beseech Your Excellency to immediately commission a Panel of International Experts, chair by ECOWAS and Co-chair by a Liberian, and should be drawn from the Liberian National Bar(LNBA), the African Bar, the European Criminal Bar Association(ECBA), the International Criminal Court Criminal (ICC), and at least retired officials from OFAC, and an observer from the African Union(AU) to investigate these sanctions against not just mere individuals in your government but core officials of your government,” he said in an open letter to President George Weah.
See full text:
I present my profound compliments and wish to inform Your Excellency that Liberia’s current democratic gains which culminated into Your Excellency’s recent decision to graciously concede defeat in a free, fair and competitive contest, are being grossly undermined by the current waves of economic sanctions being imposed by the US Treasury Department on a number of officials in Your Excellency’s government.
Your Excellency’s government is on the verge of leaving power with a horde of falsely decorated “corrupt officials” something which I suspect will not only obviously overshadow Liberia’s current democratic credentials on the world stage but could later hunt and hurt you so badly that your future bid, (if will ever happen again), for the highest office in this country could become a laughing stock.
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 “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.
Then as now, I hereby beseech Your Excellency to immediately commission a Panel of International Experts, chair by ECOWAS and Co-chair by a Liberian, and should be drawn from the Liberian National Bar(LNBA), the African Bar, the European Criminal Bar Association(ECBA), the International Criminal Court Criminal (ICC), and at least retired officials from OFAC, and an observer from the African Union(AU) to investigate these sanctions against not just mere individuals in your government but core officials of your government.
Excellency, I am totally innocent of what I was accused of, but my mere denial or dismissal of these allegations, as in the case of other officials, is not sufficient to set me free or to set anyone free, until I can have “my 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, is a crude lesson that we all must learn as we await our fate!
