Yacouba Sawadogo, 36, celebrated his acquittal of human trafficking by 11 of 12 trial jurors. Credit: Anthony Stephens/New Narratives.
Liberia has lost a human trafficking case, four months after being downgraded to tier 2 watchlist in the 2024 annual U.S. government’s Trafficking in Persons report, amid warning by U.S. officials of a cut in “nonessential aid” if the country continues to underperform in tackling the issue.

Majority jurors acquitted Yacouba Sawadogo, 36, an Ivorian man, who state prosecutors had accused of trafficking 11 Sierra Leoneans to Liberia between 2022 and 2023 under the pretense that they would travel to Canada. Prosecutors had paraded 5 witnesses during the trial. The witnesses claimed to have been recruited to Liberia and deceived about the travel by Mr. Sawadogo and his alleged accomplices and said they had paid between $US1000-$US3000 for the trip.

After 45 minutes of deliberations, 11 of the 12 jurors who sat on the trial at Criminal court “A” in Monrovia, said they were unconvinced by state prosecutors’ argument that Mr. Sawadogo did conspire with co-defendants, Foday Kabia and Ibrahim Sorie Bangura – Sierra Leonean nationals to commit the crime.

“After a careful consideration of the evidence adduced at the trial, we do hereby unanimously agree that the defendant is hereby adjudged not guilty of the crimes of trafficking in person, theft of property, criminal conspiracy and kidnaping,” the jurors said in their verdict read in open court on their behalf by Gabriel S. Smith, Clerk of Criminal Court “A.”

“Yes,” each of them loudly answered to their verdict when individually asked about it by Mr. Smith. Judge Roosevelt Willie subsequently ordered that all Mr. Sawadogo’s rights, including his right to movement, be immediate restored. One of the state witnesses wept at the reading of the verdict. Another attempted violently racing toward Mr. Sawadogo in the dock but was stopped by state lawyers and security. In an interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives, Mr. Sawadogo beamed with smiles as he celebrated the verdict, maintaining his innocence.

“I don’t know anything about the issue,” said Mr. Sawadogo, who spent one year two months in prison. “I am very happy this afternoon. In life, nothing is greater than freedom, because there is so many sufferings in prison.”

This is the third case that the Liberian government has lost in more than a year. But it’s the first they’ve prosecuted and lost since the 2024 U.S. human trafficking report was released. State prosecutors were disappointed about Monday’s verdict, blaming it on their strategy.

“It’s just not pleasing to us prosecutors,” said Attorney Randolph D. M. O. Johnson, a state prosecutor in the case, in an interview. “Going forward, we will have to re-strategize as to how we proceed with the handling of TIP cases.”

Attorney Johnson said he also didn’t think the jurors properly understood what the crime of human trafficking was.

“TIP cases are almost like a special proceeding,” said Attorney Johnson. “Many of the jurors are not familiar with TIP cases. You will do your best to explain to them what constitutes TIP cases such as the means and the purpose. We were simple in our presentation, yet they had a different perspective of it. It is frustrating. The strength of our evidence was overwhelming and convincing. We paraded our witnesses and their testimonies were corroborative.”

Attorney Randolph D. M. O. Johnson, a state prosecutor, said they will have to rethink their strategies of prosecuting human trafficking cases.

Unlike many others that had jurors sitting in court and then rendering verdicts based on witness testimonies, this case saw jurors visiting the alleged crime scenes, where the witnesses alleged they were kidnapped and confined in bondage without food and water, as well as  an office of Q-NET, a Hong Kong based global e-commerce company, where prosecutors said Mr. Sawadogo and his alleged accomplices operated from. In his testimony, Mr. Sawadogo did admit working for Q-NET,  which the Liberian National Police has accused of trafficking people. In 2022, a local court dismissed a human trafficking case against the company. It’s important to note that the jurors were not sequestrated or kept in one locate until the end of the trial.

It’s unclear whether those visits by the jurors, together with the testimonies of both state and defence witnesses, and arguments by the opposing legal parties, impacted their decision. Another notable twist in this case that analysts said could have impacted the jurors’ judgment was the Supreme Court’s intervention at the request of the defence. State prosecutors had claimed that two potential defence witnesses were Mr. Sawadogo’s accomplices that they had sought after. They threatened to arrest and prosecute them, an issue defence lawyers equated to intimidation. When the matter went before him, Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay, the chamber justice, ruled against the state and ordered criminal court “A” to allow the witnesses to testify.

The defence could only however put one of the witnesses on the stand. The witness denied the allegations against Mr. Sawadogo. Defence lawyers told the court and jury that two other witnesses could not testify because of what they claimed was the fear that state prosecutors had instilled in the witnesses. As well as saying the state had wrongly prosecuted their client, defence lawyers anchored their closing argument on the intimidation issue. In their argument in chief, state prosecutors had called Mr. Sawadogo a liar, particularly highlighting his refusal to admit that he could speak English. It was because of his comments to the court that the court ordered the state to ensure the participations of two sets of translators in the trial, a French and a Krio language translator. Krio is a widely spoken language in Sierra Leone. Asked about the issue after the verdict, Mr. Sawadogo admitted he could speak English, though not fluently.

“The English that I speak is not correct,” Mr. Sawadogo to FPA/NN. “It was why I told the court that if I want to explain myself maybe some people will understand, some people will not understand me. I told the court I need interpreter in French.”

Aside from being the first foreign national to be prosecuted with Liberia’s revised anti-human trafficking law, Mr. Sawadogo was also the first person Liberia had prosecuted in recent years with no connection to Oman, where more than 300 Liberian women were lured under deception that they would get high-paying jobs. The women were subsequently locked into contracts as housemaids working as long as 20 hours a day for little pay in dehumanizing and degrading conditions. Many reported sexual and physical abuse.

This story was a collaboration with FrontPage Africa as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.