By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

Summary:

• The latest twelve-month executive order authorizing Liberia’s war crimes court office has expired, with no public announcement from President Joseph Boakai on whether he will renew it.
• A leading civil society and victims’ coalition has called for its renewal, but also wants the office restructured with more transparency on spending.
• The future of office boss, Jallah Barbu, is unclear after public rebuke of key government officials.

A civil society coalition has urged President Joseph Boakai to renew the executive order for the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court which has expired for a second time. The Office is tasked with establishing the court. The executive orders are only meant to give the office a mandate until a bill establishing the court is passed by the Legislature. But after months of wrangling between lawmakers there is no sign that will happen any time soon.

With the future of the court under a cloud, the Transitional Justice Working Group, a network of more than 25 civil society and victims’ organizations, issued a statement saying the Office “holds a unique and critical mandate to advance Liberia’s transitional justice process” toward a functioning hybrid court.

“Yet, its current framework and structure fall short of meeting the expectations of victims, survivors, mainstream civil society actors and the wider Liberian public,” the coalition said. Its members include the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, Foundation for International Dignity, and the Liberia Girl Guides Association, among others. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

The Office was created by an executive order in May 2024 to set up a war and economic crimes court. Later a national anti-corruption court was added to its mandate. Presidential executive orders last one year, but there is no legal limit to how many times they can be renewed. Last year, President Boakai issued a renewal on April 30, two days before the previous order was set to expire.

This year, there has been no public statement from the government on whether the mandate will be renewed.  Kula Fofana, the presidential press secretary, did not respond to requests for comment on the issue.

The expiration of the executive order comes at a delicate time for postwar justice in Liberia. A dispute between Jallah Barbu, the executive director of the Office, and senior government officials erupted in public last week.

The uncertainty has raised fresh questions about the administration’s commitment to the court. In a recent speech after receiving an award from the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution at California State University, Sacramento, Boakai said his government was “working to establish a war and economic crimes court so that accountability and reconciliation move forward together.”

But the Office has been caught in a widening public dispute over funding, performance and internal government support.

In last year’s extended mandate of the Office, President Boakai pledged that his government would give it $US2 million annually. But the Office has only received $US800,000 — 40 percent — of those funds.

Barbu has accused senior government officials of undermining the process. In a live radio appearance on Okay FM, Barbu said he had circulated draft bills for the courts months ago to senior officials, including Oswald Tweh, the justice minister; Bushuben Keita, the president’s legal adviser; Samuel Kofi Woods, the national security adviser; Sam Stevquoah, minister of state for presidential affairs; and Nathaniel Kwabo, cabinet director.

But Barbu said he has not had a response and the process had stalled.

“Some people, they protecting themselves,” he said. “Some people, they don’t want this government to get this particular thing to go.”

In a statement from his office Woods rejected Barbu’s allegations, calling them “false, unfounded, and ill-fated.” He called for an independent performance evaluation, an audit of the office and an investigation into the allegations.

Tweh, under whose supervision the office operates, also rejected Barbu’s claims, describing them as “far-fetched, false and misleading.”

But Tweh acknowledged that money had been withheld saying it was because Barbu had failed to meet a government requirement that the Office was spending the government money on. The lack of transparency of spending by the Office had been a concern of all stakeholders in the process. 

Keita, Stevquoah and Kwabo did not respond to requests for comment.

The civil society coalition urged the government to release the funds, but only to a “renewed, restructured, refocused and realigned” Office so that justice and accountability for past war and economic crimes can be carried out.

The coalition also said the Office should comply with the government’s request for a spending plan. The request, it said, “is long overdue and should be honored” because the funds involved are public money “for which the government is held accountable.”

The group called for restructuring the Office to “strengthen institutional capacity, eliminate performance inefficiencies and waste of national resources. Liberians deserve a credible institution that prioritizes their voices, and delivers on the promise of transparency and accountability.”

Barbu was appointed to the role after an exhaustive recruitment process. He had replaced the first head whose job was withdrawn after an outcry by victims and donors about the lack of transparency in the appointment

The uncertainty in Liberia comes as Mohammed Jabateh, the first of five former warlords convicted over war related crimes in courts in the United States and Europe, finally exhausted all his appeals.

In March, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the 30-year sentence given to Jabateh, a former commander with United Liberation Movement of Liberia (ULIMO), known as “Jungle Jabbah”, in 2017. Jabateh was convicted of immigration fraud and perjury for lying about his wartime role in immigration proceedings. It was the second of two appeals he filed.

In 2020, he argued the law had been misapplied. The court said the law “did not support the government’s interpretation,” but still upheld the conviction. In 2024, he argued the error made his conviction unconstitutional. The court rejected that claim, saying the issue had already been decided.

Civitas Maxima, which worked on the case with Liberia’s Global Justice and Research Project, said the appeals were unexpected because the case had appeared final.

“But standards of review exist for a reason — to make certain that the decisions of the trial court … are not too easily changed or overturned,” the group said. “Unfortunately for Jabateh, this means there is now true finality regarding all of his convictions.”

This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency which had no say in the story’s content.