—As Prosecution Arraigned Pair Before Court
IPNEWS: The Korean Broadcasting System says the two Liberian officials arrested on suspicion of Rape would possibly face no lower than seven years imprisonment if discovered responsibly.
The pair, Moses Owen Browne, Liberia’s Permanent Representative to the IMO, and Daniel Tarr, Director of the Department of Marine Environmental Protection, were arraigned before a court Sunday, September 25, in that Asian country.
Details of the proceedings are yet to be made public, however, according to South Korean Law on statutory rape, “An individual who commits against the law prescribed in Article 297 (Rape) of the Criminal Act in opposition to feminine with a bodily or psychological incapacity shall be punished by imprisonment for all times or not lower than seven years.
According to the South Korean rape regulation, rape happens when a person has consensual sexual activity with an individual below the age of 20 in Korean age. South Korea doesn’t have a close-in-age exemption.
Even if discovered not responsible, it’s anticipated that President George Weah ought to recall the Liberian diplomats as was performed throughout President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s regime when Jay Napoleon Toquie, II and Chester Dweh Barh had been expelled by the federal government of the United Kingdom for acts incomparable with their jobs as diplomats thereby inserting a daunt on the picture of the federal government and the nation on the time.
According to experiences, Toquie who was commissioned in 2007 as 1st Secretary and Consul of the Embassy of Liberia to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Barh as Counselor on the Embassy in London had been linked by the file of evidence to alleged prostitution in addition to fraud and cash laundering inside the Liberian Embassy.
What is much more troubling is that the present Foreign Minister, Dee Maxwell Saah Kemayah, has been instructed to intervene in the matter regarding the two maritime officers when he (Kemayah) has comparable unsolved intercourse allegation hanging over him when serving as prominent Ambassador to the United States.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are satisfied that Browne and Tarr dedicated the act of rape on two youngsters within the Busan lodge whereas attending the International Maritime Organization (IMO) GHG SMART Practical Training and Study Visit, in Seoul, the Republic of South Korea, on September 19-23, 2022.
South Korea has an extradition treaty with 48 international locations internationally besides Liberia. LiMA has vowed to cooperate with the South Korean authorities in the aftermath of two of its staffer’s arrests on allegations of sexual assault and rape within the Port City of Busan, South Korea.
They had been in South Korea attending the International Maritime Organization (IMO) GHG SMART sensible coaching and research go from September 19-23, 2022, when this alleged incident occurred.
Liberia Intervention
LiMA mentioned it unequivocally maintains a zero-tolerance stance on any and all forms of sexual and gender-based offenses and views these allegations of the conduct of its Officials as most egregious, having no place in any civilized society.
It acknowledged that it’s going to totally cooperate with the Government of the Republic of South Korea within the investigation of this incident and vows to take applicable actions, pursuant to nationwide and worldwide legal guidelines.
A video emerged from South Korean Police exhibiting how the already detained Liberian diplomat and a director resisted arrested at a lodge within the busy South Korean metropolis of Busan.
The video reveals how police used power to burst the door to the room of the lodge after persistent persuasion for the 2 Liberian Diplomats to go forward with the Police directive to open the door following an emergency alert by a detailed affiliate of one of many rape victims within the lodge.\
The two Liberian authorities’ officers had been detained final Friday by South Korean police after being arrested on the spot at a lodge within the southeastern metropolis of Busan on Thursday after a good friend of the alleged victims reported the case to the Busan police.
A Seoul Foreign Ministry official mentioned the ministry was reviewing whether or not the 2 Liberians had been entitled to diplomatic immunity and that the police deliberate to hunt formal arrest warrants for the 2 males, which might permit them to carry the suspects in custody for as much as 10 days.
