MONROVIA, LIBERIA-Criminal Court “A” has issued a seventy-two-hour ultimatum to seventy-two Directors of Human Resources, from twenty-seven government Ministries and Agencies, as well as private institutions.
Judge Roosevelt Willie, over the weekend, informed our Judicial Reporter that the Court has since issued an arrest warrant for the twenty-seven employees from various government institutions for alleged refusal to appear for jurors’ service.
The ultimatum from Criminal Court “A” implicated the Human Resource Directors who reportedly shielded them by disrespecting the Court’s order.
Judge Willie said,” The government and private institutions’ Directors’ alleged actions were an affront to the court and as such, risk being arrested and detained within a couple of days, if they failed to surrender their employees on or before Tuesday, November 25”.
Some of the affected Government Ministries and Agencies, along with their employees, include Elijah Varmie and James Doe of the Commerce Ministry, Rebecca Volah of NPHIL, Jah Froh of CSA, Halala Kukolu of Agriculture, Miatta Sattie of LBDI, Christopher Gaysue of LEC and Isaac Charleson of the Internal Audit Agency, among others.
Jurors’ service is a constitutional duty, and those refusing to submit for jurors’ service risk 14 days’ imprisonment at the Monrovia Central Prison, consistent with the New Jury Law of Liberia.
In another development, the Head of the Independent National Human Rights Commission has raised concern over the preventive custody of fifteen kids between the ages of twelve to fifteen, at the Monrovia Central Prison.
Cllr. Dempster Browne said,” The age range of these kids forbids them from being kept in prison, rather at a rehabilitation centre, despite the crimes they allegedly committed”.
Cllr. Brown also revealed that out of the fifteen kids, only one is a convict, while the rest are pretrial detainees, without indictment, which is a violation of their rights under Liberian law.
The INCHR Chairman spoke with courtroom reporters over the weekend, when he and several other kids visited the Monrovia Central Prison in observance of World Children’s Day.
At the same time, about fifty-eight Attorneys at law, over the weekend, completed the written portion of the Supreme Court Bar Exam at the Temple of Justice.
The Supreme Court legal test administered to the Attorneys at Law ran from November 17-21, where the fifty-eight candidates wrote on topics ranging from criminal and civil procedures law, as well as corporate law, constitutional law and ethics.
Before the exam, the Supreme Court vetted over sixty Attorneys’ petitions, but accepted only fifty-eight after meeting the five-year requirements for admission to the Supreme Court as Counsellor at Law, as provided by Chapter 17, Section 17.6 of the Judiciary Law.
Bomi County Senator, Atty. Alex Tyler and Atty. Sandra Kebeh Howard was excluded from taking the test, after they was granted dispensation, by the Supreme Court based on an application from the two lawyers.