Articles

Key lawyers involved in the case against Mr. Acarous Gray, Secretary General of the Congress for Democratic Change, cannot locate the bond that was filed to release him after he was charged with 10 counts of criminal, not political offenses.

This leaves the question as to who ordered his release without the necessary legal documents.

The Executive Mansion, asked if President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf gave the orders to have the man released on Saturday night, denied the President had links to the drama.

“We were told that his lawyers filed the bond and the President had nothing to do with it,” one official said.

But the Monrovia City Magisterial Court, where records of bond would have been, said they had no such record. The City Solicitor, asked for the bond, also said he knew of none.

The Solicitor General, Cllr. Wilkins Wright, could not talk to this paper on the issue, only promising he would do so later.

However, contrary to rules that normally govern the release of accused persons on bail, Mr. Gray was released by the Solicitor General. Under normal circumstances, the sheriff of the court would have taken the bond documents to the prison as evidence that the prisoner had filed a bond to legitimize release. This was not done.

The CDC man was brought to police headquarters Saturday night. The charges against him were read to him. An American embassy official arrived there and briefly spoke with him.

He contended that he was ill, demanding to see his doctor. The police brought in a doctor, who dismissed his claim. But his lawyer demanded that a party doctor—doctor Peter Coleman who was at the center of the fake medical degree reports—examines the accused. Finally, Dr. Coleman pronounced him ill.

The court also dismissed the CDC official’s lawyer’s argument that it had no jurisdiction over the case, and he was sent to the Monrovia Central Prison.

On Sunday, a non-working day on which prisoners are not normally released, the CDC man was let out of the Monrovia Central Prison.

The case was scheduled to begin on Tuesday but that did not happen. On Wednesday, after the accused man arrived in court, the proceedings in judge’s chamber lasted for less than 15 minutes and he was on his way home. No fixed date has been set for the case.