By Grace Q. Bryant
The government of Liberia says it was its decision to remove the former Chief of Police of Sierra Leone, Mohammed Toure also known as “Sankoh Paul Alimamy” and “Yeate Yeate from its territory and given the assurances of the Government of Sierra Leone that the rights of the accused will be respected.
Mr. Toure was apprehended in Monrovia by Liberian security forces at the request of the Sierra Leonean authorities on the allegation of helping plan subversive activities intended to unseat the Government of President Julius Maada Bio.
Following preliminary investigations in Liberia, and including his rights to a free, fair and speedy trial, the Liberian government decided it was appropriate to hand Mr. Toure over to the Government of Sierra Leone as requested by the authorities in that country.
According to the Liberian government, his handover to the Sierra Leonean government is in keeping with the laws of Liberia and the 1986 Non-Aggression Security Treaty entered into by the Governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea as well as the 1994 ECOWAS Convention.
Meanwhile, information received by this paper disclosed that the Liberian Government turned the Sierra Leonean former police Chief over to the Sierra Leonean military forces late Monday evening at about 9:30pm.
The information further revealed that the former police Chief was clandestinely taken out of Liberia, despite pending court proceeding and was escorted by huge Sierra Leonean Military personnel.
However, the Independent National Commission on Human Right (INCHR) has called on the Government of Liberia to strongly consider international human rights obligations, as it cogitates the request of Sierra Leone Government in extraditing the former police chief.
The Commissioner said whilst the INCHR recognizes extradition as a critical tool for enforcing criminal laws across borders, it hastens to remind the government that extradition potentially threatens the rights of surrendered persons who could face physical abuse, unfair trial, or excessive punishment by the requesting foreign legal system.
According to Commissioner T. Dempster Brown, the core values that criminal-justice cooperation impinges on include individual freedoms, human rights, as well as legal fairness.
“Recollecting that both the Republic of Sierra Leone and Liberia are signatories to several regional and international instruments, including the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the ECOWAS Convention on Extradition, the INCHR reminds the Government of Liberia,” the Commissioner noted.
He explained that, “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense, in respect of which is requested, is regarded as a political offense or as an offense connected with a political offense, and if there are substantial grounds for believing that a request for extradition for an ordinary criminal offense has been made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on account of race, tribe, religion, nationality, political opinion, sex, or status.
Noting that,” If such a decision shall affect provisions of the Geneva Convention of 12 August, 1949 and its additional Protocols and other multilateral International Conventions, therefore If the person whose extradition is requested has been or would be, subjected to torture cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in the requesting State or if that person has not received, or would not receive the minimum guarantees in criminal proceedings, as contained in Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, or other fundamental principles of human rights.
In quoting the Criminal Procedure Law, Section 8.3, and the Geneva Convention, to which Liberia is a signatory and ratified, the Republic of Liberia should not honor the request of the Sierra Leone Government to extradite the former Chief Superintendent of police, Mohammed Y. Toure, because there is no extradition agreement between the Liberian Government and the Sierra Leonean Government that would warrant the extradition of Mohammed Toure.
INCHR is hereby reminding the Government of Liberia that the 1969 OAU Convention, governing the specific aspects of the refugee problem in Africa, specifically Article 2(3), enjoins Liberia not to reject and person who on the basis of well-founded fear, refuses to return to his country of origin, where life, physical integrity, or liberty would be threatened.
Furthermore, the 1957 UN Refugee Convention calls on all contracting States to the Convention not to expel a refugee under these conditions. Additionally, Liberia is prohibited to expel a person to return to his country, where his life, physical integrity, or liberty would be threatened.
INCHR also wishes to inform the Government of Liberia that the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which Liberia ratified in 1983, states in Article 12(4) that a non-national legally admitted in a territory of a State Party to the present Charter, may be expelled from it by operation of law, but in the instant case, there is no extradition agreement between Liberia and Sierra Leone.
However, the INCHR has threatened to file Habeas Corpus on the Liberia National Police if they do not produce the living body of Toure.
