Africa-Press – Liberia. When Alexander Cummings’ legal team alleged that evidence presented to the court by the prosecution led by Solicitor General Cllr. Syrenius Cephus was tampered with and should therefore be investigated, Cllr. Cephus swiftly responded by terming the allegation as a “slander by men of limited vision and courage”. However, on Wednesday, his team admitted to the court that there were omitted pages from the evidence, but such was an inadvertent error. The omitted pages were then submitted to the court.
On March 20, Cummings’ lawyers led by Cllr. Abraham Sillah, raised the red flag on the presentation the conversations from the WhatsApp Group chat of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) National Advisory Council to the court by the prosecution as part of their evidence omitted some conversations which were vital to proving Mr. Cummings and the ANC officials innocent of the alleged forgery.
The prosecution had presented as part of their evidence the WhatsApp conversations from July 2 to July 19. However, conversations from July 7 to July 9, were deleted from the dossier presented to the court.
Cllr. Sillah termed the omission as an attempt by the prosecution to suppress evidence.
The omitted conversation which FrontPageAfrica has seen reveals that Cummings kept his colleagues consistently informed beginning with the review by the Legal Advisors of the Framework Agreement, and including reporting progress on the registration of the CPP. He was variously commended for his works during that period.
Despite the availability of that conversation, the leaders of ALP and Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence of the Liberty Party insist that they were never presented a copy of the document before it was submitted to the National Elections Commission.
The ALP alleges that the signatures of the party leaders were forged by Mr. Cummings and his ANC.
The defense had argued that claimed that the prosecution, “with intent to engage in the political persecution of Cummings, unscrupulously and unethically suppressed impeachable pieces of evidence which will undermine prosecution’s case against the accused, and testify to the baselessness of the charges.”
Cllr. Sillah further described the act by the government’s lawyers as “a grave misconduct which violates the settled practice, standard and purpose for criminal prosecution in the country.”
At the time, Cllr. Cephus argued that “it’s very shameful for anyone claiming to be a lawyer to challenge a document that has been testified to, identified, and confirmed by the witness on the stand, and then marked by the court.”
He went on to deny any form of misconduct as alleged by Cummings’ lawyers.
However, Cllr. Sillah clarified to FPA that the Defense’s claim of “evidence suppression” which was discovered while cross-examining the Prosecution’s first witness and lead complainant, Theodore Momo, was not that the “documents testified to, identified and confirmed by the prosecution’s witness, and marked by the court” were not also from the same Chatroom of the National Advisory Council (NAC) of the CPP, but that the Prosecution intentionally omitted some pages from court’s marked exhibits “P/6” and “P/13”.
He said, the omitted pages contained impeachable pieces of evidence favorable to the Defendants and that could be used to impeach the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses. Cllr. Sillah furthered that “P/6’’ and “P/13’’ were among the documents presented to the Defense by the Prosecution, in keeping with the orders of the court at Discovery.
the Lead Defense Lawyer said, “the Prosecution should not have removed or deleted those conversations from the chain of conversations after it presented “P/6 & P13’’ to the Defense on the orders of the court.”
Adding: “The effect of the intentional omission of those material conversations is that the Defense cannot cross examine or ask Theodore Momo any question related to the omitted conversations because they are not in the said “P/6 & P13’’ testified to, identified and confirmed by Theodore Momo.
According to Cllr. Sillah, “the extracted pieces of evidence would lead any reasonable mind, or impartial investigative body, to the conclusion that the defendants have been falsely accused, the charges against them are trumped-up, and the ongoing prosecution is motivated by lies, deception and a political conspiracy against Cummings and the other accused persons.”
The Lead Defense Lawyer concluded that this is “contrary to the practice of criminal law in our country where at Discovery, the Prosecution is not permitted to withhold, suppress or extract evidence they know, or have reasons to know, do not support their charges, and or operate to prove the innocence of the accused or mitigate the sentence.”
Below is a reproduction of the conversations from the NAC Chatroom relevant to the Framework Agreement and registration of the CPP, which according to the writ of arrest “surreptitiously” done:
[7/2/20, 7:42:55 PM] Joseph N. Boakai: From which party?
[7/2/20, 7:54:59 PM] Theodore Momo, Jr.: ALP, Sir!
[7/7/20, 1:53:40 PM] You added Hon Joseph Papa Kolleh
[7/7/20, 2:04:57 PM] A: Colleagues, I hope this meets all of you
well and safe. A quick update since our last zoom call:
We have received resolutions on the FA from all Parties with
only one remaining to be notarized. We have a commitment
that it will be done today. We (through Mo Ali) will be
coming to each of the PLs for your signature on the final FA.
With that and the resolutions, we will be filing for the CPP
certification tomorrow with the NEC.
The first meeting of the VPS / Senatorial selection committee is
scheduled for 2pm today. They will be charged with
expeditiously finalizing the candidate selection process. As you
recall, 8 counties were agreed and they will finalize the
remaining 7 by using the processes outlined in the FA – VPS,
Primaries, etc. I will share with you their recommendations, but
please be assured we will push them to move with urgency.
Please revert with any comments or suggestions. Thanks!!!
[7/7/20, 2:08:23 PM] Steve Zargo: Noted and thank you so
much
[7/7/20, 2:17:27 PM] Theodore Momo, Jr.: The National
Chairpersons should be signing the FA as well?
[7/7/20, 2:20:50 PM] A: Yes, I believe they should. We will try
to coordinate all the signatures so we can file tomorrow.
[7/7/20, 2:23:24 PM] You added Madame Belle Roberts
[7/7/20, 3:58:20 PM] Musa Hassan Bility: Thank you very much
Mr. Chairman
[7/7/20, 4:00:22 PM] Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence: Thanks d
[7/7/20, 5:23:12 PM] Rep Hanson Kiazolu: Thanks Mr. Chairman.
[7/7/20, 7:41:33 PM] Hon Joseph Papa Kolleh: Thanks Mr.
Chairman
[7/8/20, 2:45:11 AM] Larry Younquoi: Kudos to you, Mr.
Chairman.
[7/9/20, 1:27:20 PM| A: FINAL CP FRAMEWORK
DOCUMENT.pdf • 26 pages
[7/9/20. 1:28:18 PM A: For vour information and record.
The final copy of the CPP FA.
[7/9/20, 2:02:40 PM] Theodore Momo, Jr.: Thanks!
[7/9/20, 3:30:33 PM] Victoria Toro Koiquah: Thank you
Chairman Cummings for sharing. Good afternoon family, hope
you are doing fine and keeping safe.
[7/9/20, 3:31:03 PM] Rep Hanson Kiazolu: Yeah
[7/10/20, 3:14:44 AM] Larry Younquoi: Thanks for sharing, Mr.
PL.
[7/13/20, 4:46:40 PM] A: CP Secretariat Committee Listing –
Draft 20200708-without names.dox • 1 page
[7/13/20, 4:53:08 PM] A: Colleagues, I’ve forwarded
Committee reconmenuatons rontte ottretariat and approved
