{"id":12176,"date":"2022-03-24T12:20:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T12:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings"},"modified":"2022-03-24T12:56:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T12:56:10","slug":"abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings","title":{"rendered":"Abuse of justice-LIROI cries out for Cummings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>The Liberian Renaissance Office Incorporated (LIROI) says prosecutors\u2019 move to suppress evidence in the trial of Alternative National Congress (ANC) political leader Alexander B. Cummings is an abuse of the role of the Judiciary and weaponizes the courts against foremost opponents of the Weah-administration.<\/p>\n

In a statement released by LIROI Country Coordinator George G. Wisner on Wednesday, 23 March 2022, the group said its attention has been drawn to media reports which independently confirmed the unethical and diabolical suppression of evidence by State Prosecutors, led by Solicitor General Cllr. Seymah Syrennius Cephus.<\/p>\n

LIROI alleged that the prosecutors\u2019 action further amplifies growing public perception that the case against Mr. Cummings and Co-defendants, all officials of the erstwhile Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), is a political conspiracy intended to persecute, weaken and ultimately exclude Mr. Cummings and his ANC from the 2023 Elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis runs counter to the underlying purpose of criminal prosecution, abuses the integrity of the judicial system, and risks plunging Liberia\u2019s struggling democracy into increased uncertainty and chaos,\u201d LIROI said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cummings is on trial for criminal charges based on accusations by his fellow opposition leader Mr. Benoni Urey and the All Liberian Party (ALP) that the accused and his ANC party allegedly tampered with the framework agreement of the CPP and attached his (Urey\u2019s) signature to a photocopy version.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cummings has denied there exists any original CPP framework agreement other than what his accusers claim is a photocopy version and has instead challenged them to produce the original. He faces charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy, but he has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In the wake of a prolonged internal crisis, the ALP, the former ruling Unity Party (UP) and a faction of the Liberty Party (LP) loyal to Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence have announced their withdrawal from the CPP.<\/p>\n

The once-formidable opposition bloc was made up of four political parties, but it has now been reduced merely to one party \u2013 Mr. Cummings\u2019 ANC and a faction of the Liberty party loyal to embattled chairman Musa Bility.<\/p>\n

LIROI alleged in its release that State Prosecutors have been caught engaged in \u201cprosecutorial misconduct\u201d in the illegal and unethical extraction of evidence known to undermine their charges and exonerate the accused persons.<\/p>\n

It explained that a local daily here published its independent confirmation on 21 March 2022 of evidence-tampering by Cllr. Cephas and his team.<\/p>\n

According to LIROI, a local daily published its independent confirmation on 21 March 2022 of evidence-tampering by Cllr. Cephas and his team, the omission conversations, and in some cases, entire chain of conversation, which clearly and convincingly proves the innocence of the accused, at discovery, and including on the direct examination of its lead complainant and first witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe criminally-extracted conversations had the additional weight of impeaching the prosecution\u2019s witness and effectively revealing the falsehood of the charges while undermining the entire basis of the trial, which was that the ANC acted \u201csurreptitiously\u201d, and without the knowledge and consent of its partners, in the registration of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP),\u201d LIROI laments.<\/p>\n

It said the local daily\u2019s independent confirmation followed similar formal complaint of prosecutorial misconduct filed before Stipendiary Magistrate Jomah Jallah by the Defense Lawyers on 18 March 2022, in which state prosecutors were accused of extracting several pieces of evidence from the WhatsApp Chatroom of the National Advisory Council (NAC) of the CPP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Defense Lawyers complained that the maliciously-extracted conversations and messages by the Prosecution are crucial in establishing the innocence of, and exonerating the accused.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIROI said it views the allegations and subsequent independent confirmation as gravely troubling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppressing evidence only to falsely impress guilt and thereby undermine the credibility of as well as exclude a political opponent from participation in the upcoming Presidential and General Elections in 2023, is undemocratic and anti-democratic,\u201d said LIROI.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, it abuses the role of the Judiciary, weaponizes the courts against foremost opponents of the Weah-administration, and further amplifies growing public perception that the case against Mr. Cummings\u2019 and Co-defendants, all officials of the CPP, is a political conspiracy intended to persecute, weaken and ultimately exclude Mr. Cummings and his ANC from the 2023 Elections,\u201d LIROI added.<\/p>\n

It noted that the Presiding Magistrate of the Monrovia City Court has promised an open-ended investigation.<\/p>\n

However, LIROI said such is the gravity of the claims on public interests, and the resultant consequences for Liberia\u2019s fledgling democracy that it calls for a speedy, independent and transparent investigation to include the National Bar Association, the Inter-religious Council, and the Press Union of Liberia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge that the findings be made public. Where it is determined that the government prosecution is engaged in the criminal extraction of evidence and the unethical suppression of pieces of evidence determined to be of exculpatory value to the defendants, it shall be our duty to call for and support the ending of the witch-hunt in order to preserve the integrity of our courts and blood, sweat and tears that ushered in our young democracy,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. The Liberian Renaissance Office Incorporated (LIROI) says prosecutors\u2019 move to suppress evidence in the trial of Alternative National Congress (ANC) political leader Alexander B. Cummings is an abuse of the role of the Judiciary and weaponizes the courts against foremost opponents of the Weah-administration. In a statement released by LIROI Country Coordinator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,10,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-12176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nAbuse of justice-LIROI cries out for Cummings - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Liberian Renaissance Office Incorporated (LIROI) says prosecutors\u2019 move to suppress evidence in the trial of Alterna ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abuse of justice-LIROI cries out for Cummings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Liberian Renaissance Office Incorporated (LIROI) says prosecutors\u2019 move to suppress evidence in the trial of Alterna ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-24T12:20:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-24T12:56:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-623c6a5467925.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"547\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Abuse of justice-LIROI cries out for Cummings\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-24T12:20:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-24T12:56:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\"},\"wordCount\":845,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-623c6a5467925.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"parties\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/abuse-of-justice-liroi-cries-out-for-cummings\",\"name\":\"Abuse of justice-LIROI cries out for Cummings - 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