IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-20 August 2018: Opposition leader of the ‘All Liberia Party-ALP’, and official of former Maritime Commissioner, Benoni Urey, is calling for the release of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, if calls for establishment of war crimes court in Liberia is ignored by current leaders of the country.
Urey said it was about time the international community begin thinking about setting former President Taylor free as ‘he along did not commit crimes in Liberia during the civil war.
Urey, businessman turned politician, stated that if calls for the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia is ignored by current leaders of the country the International Community should set former Liberian President Charles Taylor free.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison for aiding and abetting crimes during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
“Let them free Taylor or carry everyone to jail; we had a war in Liberia and one person did not commit all atrocities. A lot of people did and if one person can face justice why not the rest?” the ALP political leader said.
Urey, himself who also faced UN sanctions after the war in Liberia but was later lifted, yet faced Treasury Department’s Specially Designated sanctions and being banned from doing business with US companies, citizens and residents, and blocking all US-based assets.
Speaking with Journalists minutes after the closed door meeting held with President George Weah and other political parties, in Monrovia on Thursday, Urey stressed that those who committed crimes must face justice by and through the establishment of a war crimes court, which remains the best option for Liberia’s post transitional justice.
“We call for Justice. We want those committing war crimes be brought to trial, so than, I support the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia,” Urey told reporters.
The ALP leader stated that it was unfortunate to see only one actor of the civil war in jail while others bloodletting men roomed the city in lavished style.
Benoni Urey said: “You see, in Liberia, only one person in jail, and a lot of people committed atrocities, and this is the decision that all Liberians must make if we will bring people to justice or we allow people to go with impunity.”
A 2005 report from the Coalition for International Justice reported that Benoni Urey helped Taylor “siphon off” funds from a shipping firm to pay for arms and was the primary contact between Taylor and Viktor Bout.
Additionally, the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), recommended in its final report that Benoni Urey be prosecuted for the commission of economic crimes during the civil war and barred from holding public office for 30 years which is yet to be implemented.
In a report made public by an investigation conducted by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Liberia’s political situation in 2013, concluded that it “did not have information suggesting that Urey was involved in activities that would destabilize Liberia and the sub-region”.
But his support for the establishment of war crimes court and the call for former president Taylor’s release if ignored, now sustains by international partners and human right groups that perpetrators of crimes during the civil should face justice.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee (the Committee), a body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by its State parties, issued strong concluding observations on Liberia’s continued impunity for past crimes and human rights violations and calls upon the Liberian government to establish, as a matter of priority, a process of accountability for war crimes.
“Failure of the Government of Liberia to undertake fair and credible prosecutions of international crimes committed in Liberia during armed conflicts between 1989 and 2003, and to end impunity for civil war-era crimes,” the UN Commission said.
