Five officials of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), including the son of former Liberian leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Charles Sirleaf who were allegedly involved in the disappearance of two-billion Liberian dollars stealing were today appeared before the Judge of the Criminal Court “C” on the grounds of the Temple of Justice in Monrovia.
The case which was scheduled for Friday May 17, 2019 was again rescheduled for Tuesday May 21, 2019 at Criminal Court ‘C’ with the clerk confirming the new adjustment for the matter to be heard on Tuesday, May 21, even though he failed to state what led to said changes.
The Court notice of assignment to Government and defense lawyers claimed that Tuesday hearing will center on the justification of the five defendants’ criminal appearance bond before going into the merit of their alleged two Billion Liberian Dollars theft case.
It can be recalled that on March 19 of this year, Government lawyers led by Montserrado County Chief Prosecutor Counselor Edwin Martins questioned the insufficiency of defendants Charles Sirleaf, Dorbor Hagba, Richard H. Walker, Joseph Dennis and Milton Weeks’ criminal appearance bond.
Counselor Martins claimed that the bond proffered by the five former CBL’s Officials were inadequate to secure their release from south beach and wanted the Court to set aside the defendants’ bond by keeping them behind bars until a valid criminal appearance bond can be filed to secure their release.
According to him, the sixty Thousand United State Dollars bond proffered by defendants Charles Sirleaf, Dorbor Hagba, Richard H. Walker and Joseph Dennis were grossly inadequate to secure their releases from the Monrovia Central Prison thereby questioning defendant Milton Weeks’ Nine Hundred Thousand United State Dollars property bond in similar manner.
The Montserrado Country Chief Prosecutor maintained that the five indictees’ bonds did not meet the legal requirements as provided for in Chapter 63, Section 63.1 of the Civil Procedure Law of Liberia.
This new date by Criminal Court ‘C’ newly assigned Judge Peter Gbeneweleh set stage for both party lawyers to argue legally their claims and counter claims surrounding the sufficiency of the bond.
Judge Gbeneweleh’s notice of assignment also ordered all parties lawyers to appear for argument before the Court by 10:00AM for legal argument as provided by law.
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