The Trial Of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Episode V

The Trial Of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Episode V

            In the courtroom, the judges were finalizing formalities for the pre-trial conference when counsels of party litigants will exchange documentary and material evidences for consideration by the judges. Any evidence not presented in the pre-trial conference may never be permissible during actual hearing.

            The crowd inside and outside the court room had swollen dramatically. Among them were several former fighters some of whose limbs were amputated. One particular boy of 14 years had fractured jaw. He was member of the NPFL’s Small Boy Units that comprised band of kids 10 and 15 years of age.

            One woman screamed from the crowd, “what time your will bring the woman to court now? Your think we don’t know want to yama-yama (a Liberian parlance for manipulate) this case? But let me tell your oh, my whole family was wiped out during this war. We all want to know what part this woman, who had children, played that destroy our country like this,” she said.

            Within seconds she was whisked away by court security. But as they were taking the woman away, she kept shouting and repeating, “Wickedness is wickedness. No small one and no big one…”

Meanwhile, the prosecution team was laying charges in the Grand Jury room. It was Cllr. Wreh who was on the floor. He held in his right hand an AK-47 automatic rifle and ammo magazine in his left hand.

            “Honorable citizens, look in my hands I have a killing weapon of destruction. This woman, I mean this defendant, paid for several of them. The arms and ammunition landed in the hands of Charles Taylor, our son who has been locked away in the other world,” Wreh said.

            “How did she pay for them,” one of jurors asked.

            The prosecutor took a deep breath and searched his mind for the exact words. He stared at Madam Sirleaf for seconds and walked toward her. “This woman was so rich that she did not know what to do with her money. The money she made from the City Bank in New York, from the United Nation, she used to buy weapons,” Wreh said looking straight into her eyes.

            “On this woman’s face is a veil of smiles but under this veil is a chronic deposit of hatred from the sitting president, she is a master of mischief, one who vilifies that we will prove later, and a calculator of evil incarnation,” he added.

            Madam Sirleaf facial expression turned stern. She wanted to stand but was restrained by her lawyers. ‘Sit down Iron Lady. You are between the scissors, either side could hurt you.”

            Then Wreh picked on her nickname, “Yes, Iron Lady she is. We all agree. It is this title that made her to think that she could bully all presidents. That is what makes her to think that if it was not her it should be nobody. That is why she has destroyed the lives of about a quarter of our meager population, yes indeed she is iron lady,” Wreh said the turned toward the jurors

            “The defendant, knowing fully well that every donation made to a rebel group would go toward buying arms to fight their war, personally donated $20,000 USD. She gave the money to Taylor to buy arms and ammunition,” he added.

            “Objection,” Cllr Simpson bounced off his feet.

            Matthew was surprised that the defense lawyer would object to a presentation by prosecution. “Counselor, here, there is no objection. The objection is done in the court room, but may I ask for your grounds.”

            “My grounds are not the appropriate forum, counsel arguing matters destined for the court room, incriminating and extraneous matter.”

            “Well, we don’t argue objections here,” Matthew noted, “We will allow the counsel to continue. Your objection is hereby noted,” he said. “Counsel, you may continue.”

            Cllr. Wreh told the jurors that the intention of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was to overthrow the Samuel Doe government. According to him by her donation President Sirleaf directly and indirectly instructing the rebels to use the weapons bought with her money.

            In the process of using those weapons, pregnant women guts were opened, when rebels argued over what sex of the unborn child. That the defendant directly or indirectly placed armed in the hands of trigger happy kids as young as ten years old kill at will.

            And with the guns, Cllr. Wreh contended, “Those children raped old women, young girls and infants. All of that the children did because Madam Sirleaf bought and placed guns in their hands.”

            “That brings us to our charge of ‘aiding and abetting”, Wreh said. He said treason was provable because judging from Madam Sirleaf’s mastermind of the 1983 Nimba Raid, the November 15, 1985 Abortive Invasion, and the sponsorship of the NPFL war were all acts of treason.

            “How much more would we prove aiding and abetting,” Wreh said, “when this woman financed all those violence, and wars that broke down the fabric of the nation?” In earnest, Wreh noted, “she was the singular most war monger and evil genius that create situations that plummeted our national infrastructure, economy, social structures and rushed more than 200,000 of our people to their early graves.”