IPNews-Monrovia:A district court of the U.S. State of Pennsylvania may sentenced former spokesman of the defund National Patriotic Front of Liberia-NPFL to 30 years jail for his involvement in the Liberian civil war.
According to a dispatch from the United States, the U.S. government sentencing memorandum and mottion for upward departure and Variance.
Prosecution, represented by its attorneys, William M. McSwain, United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,Linwood C. Wright, Jr. and Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr., Assistant United States Attorneys for the District, submitted that defendant Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, being a native citizen of Liberia, sought to
become a naturalized United States citizen, he filled out an Immigration and Naturalization
Service Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, and entered an “X” in the box marked “No” ,which constitutes wrongful information.
According to court documents in the possession of this paper, Woewiyu signed his completed Form N-400 on January 23, 2006,thereby certified under penalty of perjury that his answers were true and correct.
The document further stated that on January 30, 2009, when Woewiyu was interviewed in person by a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization officer,where he orally reaffirmed under oath that the answer to each of these questions was “No,” but then changed his answer to Question 8a to “Yes,” naming only one organization, the “United Liberian Association in the United States.”
At the conclusion of the interview,
Woewiyu signed a second certification on the Form N-400 in which he again swore and certified under penalty of perjury that the contents of his naturalization application were true and correct.
The evidence at trial established that Woewiyu intentionally lied when he answered “No”
to these questions, and that he knowingly concealed significant, material disqualifying facts, which truthful answers to those questions would have required him to reveal. Specifically, Woewiyu concealed that during Liberia’s first civil war, he served as the Minister of Defense and Chief Spokesperson of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (“NPFL”), a rebel group dedicated to the armed overthrow of Liberia’s then-sitting government and its elected leader, President Samuel K. Doe, and that, from his paramount position of authority, he promoted and pursued the most abhorrent of NPFL policies: the kidnapping, forcible recruitment andb exploitation of child soldiers as front-line fighters and as his own personal bodyguards, and the open and notorious deployment of those children across Liberia to commit persecutory separations and killings based on ethnicity and political opinion at the ubiquitous NPFL checkpoints which became hallmarks of the horror that was the first Liberian civil war.
Those persecutory killings according to prosecution was targeted at members of the Krahn and Mandingo tribes, Armed Forces of
Liberia soldiers, other rebel groups and even West African ECOMOG peacekeepers.
Also marked for death pursuant to NPFL policy was anyone perceived to be collaborating with these targeted groups, and among those countless NPFL victims were five American nuns who, during a military assault code-named Operation Octopus, were shot to death by NPFL fighters on theorders of a commander known as Mosquito, whom Woewiyu by his own account had trained and whom Woewiyu supplied with machine gun and rocket propelled grenade ammunition during the assault.
The nuns were targeted for execution by the NPFL because they were suspected of collaborating with ECOMOG, which Woewiyu relentlessly identified as a mortal enemy
supported by the United States. As such accused “connivers,” the nuns were executed pursuant
to NPFL policy.
In deliberately providing deceitful answers to U.S. immigration authorities to hide his
abhorrent wartime conduct, which he well knew would disqualify him from citizenship,
Woewiyu perverted the integrity of this nation’s crucial gatekeeping process, manipulating that process in the hope that he — a persecutor, a human rights abuser, a war criminal — could enjoy the rights and protections afforded by perhaps the world’s most precious of privileges: United
States citizenship.
Even among human rights violators who have been prosecuted in U.S. courts for immigration fraud — to say nothing of the garden variety immigration fraud offenders —
Woewiyu is an extraordinary outlier in the breadth and scope of his personal responsibility for appalling acts he committed during Liberia’s first civil war, and the concomitant corruption of the very system that was designed to prevent the likes of Woewiyu from setting foot on our shores, much less being granted citizenship.
This case therefore falls far outside the heartland of typical immigration fraud cases contemplated by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Accordingly, because Woewiyu’s lies about his human rights abuses constitute an aggravating circumstance of a kind and to a degree not adequately taken into consideration by the Guidelines, and because his criminal history category substantially underrepresents the seriousness of his criminal history,
the government moves for an upward departure pursuant to United States Sentencing Guidelines. See full text of filling:
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA :
v. : CRIMINAL NO. 14-cr-50
JUCONTEE THOMAS WOEWIYU :
GOVERNMENT’S SENTENCING MEMORANDUM AND
MOTION FOR UPWARD DEPARTURE AND/OR VARIANCE
The United States of America, by its attorneys, William M. McSwain, United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Linwood C. Wright, Jr. and Nelson S.T.
Thayer, Jr., Assistant United States Attorneys for the District, respectfully submits the following
sentencing memorandum and motion for upward sentencing departure and/or variance.
I. INTRODUCTION
When defendant Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, a native and citizen of Liberia, sought to
become a naturalized United States citizen, he filled out an Immigration and Naturalization
Service Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, and entered an “X” in the box marked “No”
to the following questions:
1. “Have you EVER been a member of or associated with any organization,
association, fund, foundation, party, club, society, or similar group in the
United States or in any other place?” (Question 8a);
2. “Have you EVER advocated (either directly or indirectly) the overthrow of
any government by force or violence?” (Question 10); and
3. “Have you EVER persecuted (either directly or indirectly) any person
because of race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion?” (Question 11).
When Woewiyu signed his completed Form N-400 on January 23, 2006, he thereby certified
under penalty of perjury that his answers were true and correct. On January 30, 2009, when
Woewiyu was interviewed in person by a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
naturalization officer, he orally reaffirmed under oath that the answer to each of these questions
was “No,” but then changed his answer to Question 8a to “Yes,” naming only one organization,
the “United Liberian Association in the United States.” At the conclusion of the interview,
Woewiyu signed a second certification on the Form N-400 in which he again swore and certified
under penalty of perjury that the contents of his naturalization application were true and correct.
The evidence at trial established that Woewiyu intentionally lied when he answered “No”
to these questions, and that he knowingly concealed significant, material disqualifying facts,
which truthful answers to those questions would have required him to reveal. Specifically,
Woewiyu concealed that during Liberia’s first civil war, he served as the Minister of Defense
and Chief Spokesperson of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (“NPFL”), a rebel group
dedicated to the armed overthrow of Liberia’s then-sitting government and its elected leader,
President Samuel K. Doe, and that, from his paramount position of authority, he promoted and
pursued the most abhorrent of NPFL policies: the kidnapping, forcible recruitment and
exploitation of child soldiers as front-line fighters and as his own personal bodyguards, and the
open and notorious deployment of those children across Liberia to commit persecutory
separations and killings based on ethnicity and political opinion at the ubiquitous NPFL
checkpoints which became hallmarks of the horror that was the first Liberian civil war. Those
persecutory killings targeted members of the Krahn and Mandingo tribes, Armed Forces of
Liberia soldiers, other rebel groups and even West African ECOMOG peacekeepers. Also
marked for death pursuant to NPFL policy was anyone perceived to be collaborating with these
targeted groups, and among those countless NPFL victims were five American nuns who, during
a military assault code-named Operation Octopus, were shot to death by NPFL fighters on the orders of a commander known as Mosquito, whom Woewiyu by his own account had trained and
whom Woewiyu supplied with machine gun and rocket propelled grenade ammunition during the
assault. The nuns were targeted for execution by the NPFL because they were suspected of
collaborating with ECOMOG, which Woewiyu relentlessly identified as a mortal enemy
supported by the United States. As such accused “connivers,” the nuns were executed pursuant
to NPFL policy.
In deliberately providing deceitful answers to U.S. immigration authorities to hide his
abhorrent wartime conduct, which he well knew would disqualify him from citizenship,
Woewiyu perverted the integrity of this nation’s crucial gatekeeping process, manipulating that
process in the hope that he — a persecutor, a human rights abuser, a war criminal — could enjoy
the rights and protections afforded by perhaps the world’s most precious of privileges: United
States citizenship.
Even among human rights violators who have been prosecuted in U.S. courts for
immigration fraud — to say nothing of the garden variety immigration fraud offenders —
Woewiyu is an extraordinary outlier in the breadth and scope of his personal responsibility for
appalling acts he committed during Liberia’s first civil war, and the concomitant corruption of
the very system that was designed to prevent the likes of Woewiyu from setting foot on our
shores, much less being granted citizenship. This case therefore falls far outside the heartland of
typical immigration fraud cases contemplated by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Accordingly,
because Woewiyu’s lies about his human rights abuses constitute an aggravating circumstance of
a kind and to a degree not adequately taken into consideration by the Guidelines, and because his
criminal history category substantially underrepresents the seriousness of his criminal history,
the government moves for an upward departure pursuant to United States Sentencing Guidelines
Sections 5K2.0 and 4A1.3(a)(1), respectively. In addition, the government moves for an upward
variance based upon the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Given that Woewiyu’s
egregious war crimes formed the basis and motive for his false statements and perjury, and that
there can be no more egregious an assault on our nation’s immigration scheme than the prospect
of granting U.S. citizenship to such a high-level war criminal, his case is extraordinary and
warrants sentencing him to thirty years’ imprisonment.
II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On January 30, 2014, a federal grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
returned a sixteen-count indictment charging Woewiyu with one count of attempting to obtain
citizenship by providing false and fraudulent information and omitting material facts, in violation
of 18 U.S.C. § 1425(a) (Count 1); one count of attempting to obtain citizenship to which he was
not entitled owing to lacking “good moral character,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1425(b) (Count
2); four counts of fraud in immigration documents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a) (Counts
3, 4, 5 and 6); three counts of false statements in relation to naturalization, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1015(a) (Counts 7, 8 and 9); three counts of oral perjury, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §
1621(1) (Counts 10, 12 and14); and four counts of certification perjury, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1621(2) (Counts 11, 13, 15 and 16). On July 3, 2018, after a three-week trial, Woewiyu was
found guilty of 11 of 16 counts; specifically, Counts 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15. He
was acquitted of Counts 3, 6, 7, 11 and 16.
III. THE OFFENSE CONDUCT
The evidence at trial established that Woewiyu was a founder and leader of the National
Patriotic Front of Liberia, the rebel group that on Christmas Eve of 1989, fired the first shots in
Liberia’s brutal civil war, and that continued to wage its bloody uprising until its leader, Charles in Washington, D.C. Bishop understood that Woewiyu represented the NPFL as its Minister of
Defense, that he was in charge of the military and that the objective of the NPFL was to remove
the Doe regime. PSR ¶ 45.
Approximately one month prior to departing for Liberia in August of 1991, former U.S.
Deputy Chief of Mission Gerald Rose met for lunch in the U.S. with Woewiyu, who he
understood was the NPFL’s Minister of Defense and spokesperson. Woewiyu told Rose about
the NPFL’s goals and impressed him by being very educated and well-spoken, though he
reminded Rose of a used car salesman. Woewiyu was selling the mission of the NPFL, which
was to assume power over the government, remove Doe and establish a new government. When
Rose arrived in Liberia in August of 1991, the NPFL controlled the entire country save for
Monrovia, which had been guarded by a defensive perimeter of ECOMOG peacekeepers for
almost two years. PSR ¶¶ 70-71.
When British journalist Mark Huband was ushered into Taylor’s secluded jungle
headquarters after a prominent NPFL military commander had been killed in May or early June
of 1990, he saw Woewiyu seated at Taylor’s right hand, dressed in military fatigues and cap,
with an AK-47 between his legs. PSR ¶ 69.
BBC West Africa Correspondent Elizabeth Blunt conducted interviews between June
and October 1990 with Woewiyu, who as the NPFL spokesperson and Minister of Defense,
served as the NFPL’s “acceptable face.” During the interviews, Woewiyu was not interested in
coming to an agreement with the Doe government, but instead wanted to fight until Doe was out
of Monrovia. After Doe was removed, the NPFL continued to fight ECOMOG. PSR 49.
Liberian journalist Witness A and other journalists were invited from Monrovia to the
Executive Mansion for what turned out to be a celebration of Taylor’s birthday. Details available. Contact:0886902569/0776323605
