20100730
allafrica

When Deputy House Speaker Tokpa Mulbah allegedly ordered the brutal flogging of police patrolman Lexington Beh late last month, darted into the sanctuary of his mansion with police in tow, got the spontaneous help of CDC officials and foot-soldiers to help him escape arrest, and claimed to be politically victimized by the Sirleaf Administration, it was all politics – Liberian style. And the day went to the swift. However melodramatic and revealing that police-deputy speaker encounter was, it did very little to shield and give the deputy speaker the carte blanche immunity he and his supporters assumed he has or should have. The deputy speaker came to that grim reality this week, when only the agility of his lawyers stood between him and an arrest order on criminal charges. The Analyst, reports.

House Deputy Speaker Tokpa Mulbah, Wednesday this week, narrowly escaped arrest when his lawyers preempted a writ for his arrest, presented him to the judge in chambers, and submitted a bond for his release – all without facing his legal adversaries or the sheriff of court.

Observers say the deputy speaker's arrest and detention in common jail pending court hearing would have been the first such legal coup in Liberia's long years of self-governance since Charles D.B. King, the first ever-Liberian sitting president to be charged criminally by the international community.

According to reports, Solicitor General Watkins Wright led a corps of government prosecutors to Criminal Court A in Monrovia to present a criminal indictment to Judge James A. Zota in order to obtain a writ of arrest for Mr. Tokpa Mulbah, believed to be the House Deputy Speaker, on eight counts of felony.

But just before the court could grant the request and issue the writ for the arrest and detention of Mr. Mulbah pending court hearings, the indictee appeared out of the blue moon with his lawyer Cllr. Francis Garlawolo, armed with what one legal practitioner called a "preemptive bond".

The report said as soon as Cllr. Garlawolo got to the court, he sought audience with Judge Zota, surrendered his client, and obtained a bond thereby dismissing and nullifying the need for any writ of arrest.

Prosecution had hoped to arrest the deputy speaker and put him behind bars pending court hearings on an 8-count indictment charging him with "attempt to commit murder; aggravated assault; criminal conspiracy; theft of property; physical obstruction of government function; preventing arrest or discharge of others' duties; hindering law enforcement; and criminal mischief ."

The report said the prosecution drew the charges from the recent incident involving the deputy speaker and a police patrolman during which the former allegedly ordered the brutal flogging of the latter, leaving him for dead.

It all began when the patrolman impounded a commercial truck belonging to the deputy speaker for not meeting traffic standards and allegedly refused to honor the deputy speaker's intervention for its release, prompting the deputy speaker to use massive force to compel compliance.

When it was all over, Patrolman Lexington Beh lay battered, bleeding, and gasping for breath, according to eyewitness.

Meanwhile, the prosecution has begun reviewing events related to Wednesday's dramatic event, from the deputy speaker's warding off of the police agents at his home to his second escape this week.

There are fears amongst prosecution lawyers that the indictment, dated July 23, 2010, might have been leaked to Mr. Mulbah's legal counsels by someone associated with its preparation in the office of the solicitor general of Liberia or at the Criminal Court A, thereby enabling the preemptive action.

"Our position was that there was some leakage of information for Cllr. Galawolo to have appeared in court with his client with a bond already prepared from an insurance company," Solicitor General Wright said.

He did not say what the preemptive action meant for the prosecution and government's determination to prosecute the top legislator to ensure justice, but he said the indictee would not be arrested as the prosecution had intended because his counsels had advanced information and were legally prepared.

"The indictment was prepared on the 23rd of July and I left it in my office and travelled and by the time I came back, they had infiltrated my camp because the man knew the charges and everything and he prepared the bond to kill everything," the solicitor general said.

He however noted that despite what happened, the court served the indictment on Mr. Mulbah and that though released by the judge on the basis of the bond filed by his lawyer, he would appear in court at a later date.

"When the court open on the 9th of August, the case will be set for trial," he told our reporter in an interview, noting that the deputy speaker would have remained locked up, up to the time of the court's opening in August.

On whether a sitting legislator would face criminal charges, Solicitor General Wright said the question was cleared with the Supreme Court and that the deputy speaker chose to remain silent, preferring to have his day in court to clear his name.

The leadership of the lower house of the Liberian parliament could not be reached up to bedtime last night to comment on the deputy speaker's fate at the criminal court at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia.

But with the indictment already served on the deputy speaker, observers say there is no turning back from his being the first sitting legislator to face criminal charges, possibly revealing the full meaning of Article 42 of the Constitution of Liberia regarding parliamentary immunity, the public conduct of lawmakers, and Liberia's newfound commitment to the rule of law.