Africa-Press – Liberia. The newly-commissioned Judge of Criminal Court ‘D’ at the Temple of Justice, Cllr. Mameita Jabateh-Sirleaf has vowed to release all those behind bars for armed robbery and other crimes if the Government of Liberia fails to proceed with prosecution.
Judge Mameita, delivering the Judges’ charge on behalf of her colleagues Monday, at a program marking the joint formal opening of the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Assizes ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ & ‘D’ for Montserrado County sitting in its May A. D. 2023 Term Court, said her planned action is in compliance with chapter 18.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law.
Judge Mameita quotes Chapter 18.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law as saying: “Dismissal by court for failure to proceed with prosecution. It reads that unless good cause is shown a court shall dismiss a complaint against a defendant who is not indicted by the end of the next term succeeding after the arrest for any indictable offense or his appearance in court to respond to a summons or notice to appear charging him with such an offense.”
“This means that this court can dismiss a criminal case if they are not indicted on time,” she emphasize.
“The question is, what happens if an armed robbery suspect is free and put back into the community? Do you imagine the insecurity that is being created? Do you think we will sleep in peace?” She asked.
She stated further that on the contrary, the Constitution also guarantees the fundamental rights of all its citizens, adding that a prolonged detention without trial is a violation of those rights.
According to her, if anyone should infringe on the constitutional rights of any citizen, such person has the right to come to court for redress and is entitled to a speedy trial under the judicial system.
Therefore, she said it is the intent of the authors of the Constitution that the Government of Liberia will provide resources to ensure that criminal cases are timely tried to protect the right of the accused in pre-trial detention and the right and security of those out of jail.
The judge noted that the way forward is to mobilize and make funds available to prosecute all criminal cases.
Judge Mameita highlights that many accused are languishing behind bars contrary to the spirit and intent of the constitution which guarantees speedy trial.
“Now, as a judge, I am also under a duty to respect the rights of those who have been detained as pre-trial detainees. My question is, assuming that some of the accused were to be found guilty and released back to society, will society be at peace? So the difficulty is how do we as judges balance the right of the accused in detention and the rights of citizens outside of jail to live in peace? Prolonged detention means the right of the person in jail is been abused. The discharge of would-be criminal from jail without trial will also endanger the community,” she averred.
“As an interpreter of the law now, I will be constrained to follow the details of the law that is to interpret the law as it should be.
We know that it may be bad to release people accused of a felonious crime, such as armed robbery, but it will be equally wrong and illegal to detain an innocent person in jail for a long period who have not been found guilty,” the judge concluded.
In a recent article written by Stephen Rodriques, UNDP Resident Representative in Liberia, he disclosed that there are more than 3000 persons in prison in Liberia. Around 2,137 (71%) of these are pretrial detainees, meaning their matter has not even been taken to court.
Monrovia Central Prison houses around 1,300 prisoners even though it was designed for only 374 inmates.
Mr. Rodriques also disclosed that the Bureau for Correction and Rehabilitation (BCR) is severely financially constrained to provide inmates with adequate food or proper diet, bedding, and sanitary materials, and to prevent and manage the spread of communicable diseases. While prison should be a place of rehabilitation and transformation, the current situation poses numerous risks to both inmates and staff.
The UNDP Country Representative lamented that lengthy pretrial detention and prison overcrowding are two critical challenges undermining access to justice in Liberia. The slow grinding wheels of justice that keep thousands in prison without trial risk intensifying crimes and criminality as pretrial detainees get hardened by the tough prison life and delayed justice. Some people are held in prison for years – only to be proven innocent. This, he noted, is a violation of detainees’ human rights and severely erodes the trust in the justice system.
In December 2022, the Superintendent of the Monrovia Central Prison declined to admit new suspects as the number of prisoners soared to 1,600.
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