Court Denies Severance Trial In Economic Sabotage Case

MONROVIA, November 26 (LINA) -The Criminal Court ‘C’ at the Temple of Justice has denied a motion for severance trial filed by the former Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Moses Wogbeh.

The court denied the motion Tuesday because it lacks sufficient grounds in law and facts, according to Judge Yusuf Kaba.

The defendant filed the motion on November 14following his indictment on February 20 by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County along with seven other accused former officials of the FDA for Economic Sabotage and Criminal Conspiracy.

Others indicted are Jangar Kamara, Cllr. Benedict Sagbeh, John Kantor, Augustine Johnson, Torwan Yanty, David Blyee and Maxwell Gwee.

According to Judge Kaba, the court also denied the motion for severance trial because it does not find any legal justification to separate the defendants for the purpose of a trial.

In the indictment, the grand jurors stated that between April 2010 and December
2011, co-defendants Wogbeh and others did “knowingly conspire to defraud” the government of revenue.

It said the accused facilitated the wrongful and illegal issuance of 61 Private Use Permits (PUPs) that authorized commercial logging operations on nearly 2.5 million hectares of land in Liberia.

“The co-defendants also contravened Section 5.6d and 18.9b of the National Forestry Reform Law (2006), and 2.3b of the Community Rights Law, thereby depriving communities of revenue and the Government of Liberia of land rental which it would have been entitled to issue the license under the Community Rights Law (2009),” according to the indictment.

Final verdict in the case is expected on Monday, December 1, at the Criminal Court “C” in Monrovia.
LINA