MONROVIA, September 23 (LINA) - The Presiding Judge of the Criminal Court “A”, Johannes Zlahn, Tuesday ordered the Monrovia City Court to resume jurisdiction in the kidnapping case involving defendant Mohammed Faade.
In 2011, defendant Faade took away his three children, Ashia Faade and two brothers, to an unknown destination where he allegedly ill-treated them against the will and consent of their mother.
The defendant was in August 2014 charged by the City Court with kidnapping his three children and taking them to an unknown destination for which he made a promissory note to produce their living bodies before the court on August 11, 2014.
The Liberia News Agency reports that Judge Zlahn said the Penal Law states that kidnapping is either a first or second degree felony, and that Magistrate Kennedy Peabody was without jurisdiction to allow the defendant to make a promissory note to produce the children on August 11, 2014, and therefore he should retain jurisdiction over the matter.
He added that Magistrate Peabody was required by law to have granted the defendant a bail satisfactory to him, or to have committed the defendant to prison if the defendant was unable to file an appropriate bail bond and then transmit the entire file to the clerk of the Circuit Court and thereafter the clerk will transmit the file to the County Attorney for Montserrado County.
He further said that the crime for which the defendant has been charged is an infamous crime and it is not a petit crime for which he has the right to be tried by jury of his peers.
Meanwhile, Judge Zlahn has ordered Magistrate Peabody to resume jurisdiction in the matter and proceed consistent with the ruling.
LINA CMJ/GDJ/TSS