Last week during final argument, both lawyers argued extensively on their theories about whether or not the defendants should be adjudged guilty for the crimes brought against them.
The defendants are former FDA Managing Director Moses Wogbeh, former FDA Technical Manager John Kantor, former Manager for Commercial Forestry Jankar Kamara, former Manager of Geo Information System Augustine B.M. Johnson and former County Surveyor for Grand Bassa County David Blayee. They were charged and indicted for economic sabotage, forgery, counterfeiting, obtaining deceptive writings, obstruction of government functions by a public servant. They were charged by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County.
The state accused the former FDA officials of issuing up to 61 illegal private use permits (PUPs) between April 2010 and December 2011 that authorized commercial logging operations on over 150 hectares of land area to defraud the Government of Liberia of over US$6 million.
According to Solicitor General Betty Lamin- Blamo, the defendants’ acts were intentional, and that they colluded with companies that should have been Forest Management Contract (FMC) license holders and provided them with PUP licenses, thus preventing those companies from paying land rental fees that should have been paid.
Defense lawyers, headed by Albert Sims, argued that the state did not prove their case against their clients, something that was refuted by the solicitor General stating, that all of the evidence was provided by the state to proof them guilty.
When argument was raised on the defendants’ indictment, Cllr. Blamo said that an individual could be indicted with or without them being summoned by a magistrate or arrested by the police.
In a counter argument, defense lawyers argued that the trial against the defendants were selective because all those that should have been held accountable for the crime were not brought before the court to answer to be prosecuted. They claimed that the case as was made by the state was not factual because during the term of the defendants at the FDA they were able to generate about US$7 million for the government.
Following the argument, Judge Gbeneweleh reserved his ruling into the matter today.