By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

A stunning turn in Liberia’s largest human trafficking trial unfolded Wednesday as one of the 12 defendants pleaded guilty and took the stand against her co-defendants.

Moments before proceedings resumed in the morning, Shelley Jonny, dressed in a blue prison uniform, moved from the dock to address the court. Her calm demeanor contrasted sharply with the expressions of the other defendants, who appeared stunned by her decision to abandon her earlier plea of “not guilty” at the trial’s opening on Tuesday.

When asked by Judge Roosevelt Willie of Criminal Court “A” whether the charges against her were true, Jonny responded:

“Some there that true. Some there is not true,” said Jonny speaking in Liberian English. “The one I see, that’s what I will talk.”

Willie then directed questions to Sennay Carlor, a public defender, about whether Jonny, one of three women among the defendants, had previously discussed her change of position with him. Carlor told the court that she had not but said he had no objection to her decision to plead guilty and testify against the other accused.

Willie ordered a 10-minute recess to allow the prosecution to meet with the witness. The parties returned with prosecutors announcing the state had dropped charges against her. Jonny was facing charges of trafficking in persons, theft of property and criminal conspiracy and was facing a minimum 20-year prison sentence.

On the witness stand, Jonny became a powerful witness for the prosecution. Experts said the defense was already facing a difficult battle with overwhelming evidence from 57 victims in the case, but Jonny’s flip against her co-conspirators may prove decisive in the jurors’ minds.

Jonny told the court she was originally a victim, recruited from Nimba County by Jonny Dahn, another accused whom the state says remains at large. Jonny said she gave Shelley Suah, another defendant, US$3000 on Dahn’s instructions with the hopes of traveling to Canada.

In a story that mirrored that of other victims, she told the court that after arriving in Monrovia, she was taken to the compound in Gbankpa Town, near the residence of Vice President Jeremiah Koung along the Roberts International Airport highway, that became the alleged holding location for all the women victims in this case. Vicitms have alleged there were as many as 150 women held at one time. Another compound held men. There she realized that she was not going to get the money or travel to Canada.

Jonny testified, that Dahn and other accused – Shelley Suah, Stanley Wonlebaye, Luther Flomo, Maxson Wonlebaye and others – directed her to bring more recruits, promising payment of $225 per week. Over time that encouragement turned to coercion through torture.

Jonny corroborated the testimony of the prosecutions’ first witness, whom FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is calling S., to protect her from retribution. On Tuesday, S. described what she said was inhumane treatment during captivity—including deprivation of food, torture and beatings—while detained at the compound. Jonny said there were about 150 people held there in total.

“Martherline [Tompia, another accused] gave me sea water to drink,” Jonny said. She said that captors used water—she said large quantities—then restricted food afterward, contributing to sickness and vomiting. “Luther used to make me to pump tire. Preston used to beat on my head. Stanley used to make be to sit down in dirty water and tell me to stretch my two hands. No food. They put you on your knees, you pump tire, they give you 15 bags of water to drink.”

She testified that sexual violence was part of the conditions in the compound, characterizing rape as a widespread practice among the captors’ tactics.

“They used to do it to other people but not me,” Johhny said during cross examination. She said that rape was the “trend,” describing a pattern in which captors allegedly used rape to pressure victims to hand over money.

Jonny said she did not immediately join other detainees who escaped the compound and went to the Paynesville courthouse to report the crimes. The women had fled the compound with the help of security personnel at Vice President Koung’s nearby compound after their captors told them that Ophelia Melway, one of their number, had died. The women said they began loud banging and screaming that got the attention of the guards. The alleged victims told New Narratives and investigators that they believed Melway had been murdered and that they, having exhausted all value to the traffickers, would also be killed. She told the court she had wanted to make clear to police that she had originally been a victim too but felt forced to become a perpetrator.

Jonny testified that she had warned the accused she was willing to testify against them.

“I told Wuo Zekarso Garteh and Jerome Genseh that ‘I am not part of you. You used to be suffering us,” said Jonny. “ The one I see, that’s it, I will talk.” She said the accused and Prince Konway, a lawyer for the accused at the start of the case in the Paynesville Magestrates’ Court, had—discouraged her from breaking away from the group saying that the case would soon be dismissed.

Jonny’s decision to cooperate with the prosecutors was hailed as a significant step toward accountability by Augustine C. Fayiah, Liberia’s solicitor general, who had taken the unusual step of appearing in court to lead the prosecution. Experts said it was a sign that the government was serious about ensuring justice was done and, importantly, seen to be done, in this case that had gained that attention of key national and international actors.

“That will tell you that their conduct is criminal,” said Fayiah. “I think that is very, very good that she testified against accused colleagues.”

In an interview, Fayiah said the government had taken seriously revelations in earlier reporting by FrontPage Africa and New Narratives that victims had alleged that traffickers told them they were paying a public defender named Bestman Juah to ensure the charges were reduced or dropped.

In the original charge sheet issued by Enoch Dunbar, the chief police human trafficking inspector, just one of the 12 defendants, and another 15 alleged offenders who have not been arrested, was charged with the most serious crime, Trafficking in Persons. Three were not charged at all. Dunbar and Juah have denied the allegations.

Fayiah conceded the international community had raised the case with the government.

“They raised concern with some of my actors, most especially the Minister of Labor and other people,” he said. “To the international community, I say: ‘This is our job. We do the best that we can to make sure that the proper thing is done here. We are part of the comity of nations. So, whatever we do must be in conformity with the best practices.’”Augustine C. Fayiah, Liberia’s solicitor general.

All jurors were sequestered (held separately during the trial to protect them from influence, bribery and intimidation) in another unusual move, designed to underscore the government’s seriousness in the case. Fayiah said security had also been increased with four armed police officers were deployed to the protected area of the Temple of Justice, the seat of Liberia’s judiciary, on Wednesday morning, with additional officers planned for Thursday.

After Jonny’s testimony, the state presented two additional female witnesses, each describing rape and coercion by the alleged captors. One witness—identified in court with the initial “P.”—testified that she was recruited from Grand Gedeh County by defendant Bill Plato with a promise of travel to Canada, describing paying $3000 for processing her passport and traveling documents. She then described abuse similar to that of Jonny. She said she was taken to the compound and kept with others under inhumane conditions, tortured and forced to call family and friends listed in her phone to lie to them that she was in Canada and persuade them to pay money too. She said she was raped by Plato.

A second witness, identified as “L.”, testified that she was raped by Maxson Wonlebaye and said she was compelled to abort a resulting pregnancy with pills.

“The next day, he brought the medicine,” said L. She first refused to take the medicine but then he forced her. She said the resulting blood loss, with no medical attention, made her fear she would die. She also said captors punished her when she would not request money from her relatives, describing forced labor in which she was tortured and forced to pump air into tires for two hours at a time.

Both witnesses described harsh treatment, and their accounts, along with Jonny’s, offered a consistent theme: coercion, confinement, and sexual violence used as mechanisms to control them and extract money.

The trial continues Thursday.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.