{"id":87663,"date":"2026-02-13T18:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:24:39","slug":"prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling","title":{"rendered":"Prophet Key Starts Six-Month Jail Term Amid Court Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Prophet Key was escorted to prison by court sheriffs, backed by officers of the Liberia National Police, in a heavily guarded convoy.<\/p>\n<p>Justine Oldpa Yeazeahn, popularly known as Prophet Key, has begun serving a six-month prison sentence at the Monrovia Central Prison following a contempt ruling by the Supreme Court of Liberia.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court on Friday found Prophet Key guilty of contempt, a day after he appeared before the Full Bench, admitted wrongdoing, and pleaded with the justices to temper justice with mercy.<\/p>\n<p>He was escorted to prison by court sheriffs, backed by officers of the Liberia National Police, in a heavily guarded convoy.<\/p>\n<p>Prophet Key had been summoned to show cause why he should not be held in contempt for publicly ridiculing the Court. The charges stemmed from a series of social media statements in which he verbally attacked Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay and his mother, and accused the Supreme Court of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>In its ruling, the Court said his actions were contemptuous and undermined the dignity and integrity of the judiciary, warranting a custodial sentence.<\/p>\n<p>The decision has drawn mixed reactions.<\/p>\n<p>Some citizens \u2014 particularly women\u2019s groups \u2014 welcomed the ruling, describing it as a necessary step to uphold respect for women and public institutions. However, critics argue that the judgment infringes on freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not justice. The Supreme Court\u2019s ruling violates the Kamara Abdullah Kamara Act and sets a troubling precedent,\u201d one onlooker at the Monrovia Central Prison said.<\/p>\n<p>Another analyst cautioned: \u201cLiberia cannot claim to protect free speech while punishing it in effect. Free expression cannot depend on judicial mood or selective enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A third critic warned that if the ruling stands without clear justification consistent with the Press Freedom Act, it could signal a troubling shift.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Prophet Key ruling stands without clear alignment with the Press Freedom Act, then Liberia risks creating a reality where free speech exists in name but not in practice,\u201d the analyst said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Liberia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Liberia. Prophet Key was escorted to prison by court sheriffs, backed by officers of the Liberia National Police, in a heavily guarded convoy. Justine Oldpa Yeazeahn, popularly known as Prophet Key, has begun serving a six-month prison sentence at the Monrovia Central Prison following a contempt ruling by the Supreme Court of Liberia. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":87662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-87663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Prophet Key Starts Six-Month Jail Term Amid Court Ruling - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prophet Key was escorted to prison by court sheriffs, backed by officers of the Liberia National Police, in a heavily gu ...\" \/>\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\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prophet Key Starts Six-Month Jail Term Amid Court Ruling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prophet Key was escorted to prison by court sheriffs, backed by officers of the Liberia National Police, in a heavily gu ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\" \/>\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=\"2026-02-13T18:01:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T18:24:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2026\/02\/sm_1770994446.824126.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\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=\"2 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\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Prophet Key Starts Six-Month Jail Term Amid Court Ruling\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-13T18:01:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T18:24:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\"},\"wordCount\":350,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2026\/02\/sm_1770994446.824126.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/prophet-key-starts-six-month-jail-term-amid-court-ruling\",\"name\":\"Prophet Key Starts Six-Month Jail Term Amid Court Ruling - 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