— Uses Influence & Affluence to Intimidate Media (Part II)
IPNEWS: On August 15, 2022, the United States, Treasury Department sanctioned Syrenius Cephus stating that he ‘received bribes from people in exchange for having their court cases dropped and has also shielded money launderers and helped clear them through the court system.
The U.S. Sanction also noted that Cephus has intimidated prosecutors in an attempt to quash probes and has been accused of tampering with evidence in cases that involved members of opposition political parties.
“Sayma Syrenius Cephus (Cephus) is the current Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia. Cephus has developed close relationships with suspects of criminal investigations and has received bribes from individuals in exchange for having their cases dropped. Cephus has worked behind the scenes to establish arrangements with subjects of money laundering investigations to cease investigations in order to personally benefit financially. He shields money launderers and helps clear them through the court system and has intimidated other prosecutors in an attempt to quash investigations. Cephus has also utilized his position to hinder investigations and block the prosecution of corruption cases involving members of the government. Cephus has been accused of tampering with and purposefully withholding evidence in cases involving members of opposition political parties to ensure conviction.
Cephus is being designated for being a foreign person who is a current government official who is responsible for or complicit in, or who has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
Subsequently, on December 5, 2022, the authoritative Independent Probe published an article captioned: “CEPHUS RISKS ICC INDICTMENT——-As US$35K Finnish Trading Money Draws Bitter Water (Part I)”.
The article details a shady agreement between former Solicitor-General Cephus and Finland’s Police Chief, Thomas Elgren for the handover of protected international witnesses for war crimes to the Finnish Police chief on a flying sheet without the letterhead of the Ministry of Justice.
The discovery of the leaked memorandum of understanding sparked an investigation by IPNEWS in seeking the rationale for entering a nine-count MOU between a foreign agent, without the attestation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, given the nature of the MOU.
In IPNEWS’ inquest to get to the bottom of the leaked MOU, we contacted Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean, and former Solicitor-General Sayma Syrenius Cephus, for redress but to no avail.
The communication to Justice Minister, Frank Musa Dean, reads:
“Good evening Hon. Justice Minister Musa Dean:
This is Chester Smith, Publisher, of The Independent Probe Newspaper.
Permit us to seek clarification whether or not you approved and knowledge a leaked secret memorandum of understanding signed between the former solicitor-General, Finland Police chief, and lead prosecutor, Thomas Elfgren, in November 2019, granting authority to the FINNISH Police to investigate individuals with information on war crimes atrocities, particularly protected witnesses including Gbril Massaquoi, against international best legal practices in Liberia.
It is IPNEWS’ understanding that former Deouty Minidter of Justice, Cllr. Cephus allegedly received USD 35,000.00 into signing this 9-count memorandum of understanding.
As Minister of Justice, Republic of Liberia, did you sanction such a move towards the memorandum of understanding? If no, do you regret this action by your principal deputy?
What are your responses to this move allegedly by the GOL to exposing the protected witness Massaquoi to undue harm?
Thank you and congratulations on your continued professional handling of matters at the Ministry of Justice.”
For former Solicitor-General Cephus, IPNEWS’ letter to him reads:
“Good evening Hon. Cephus:
This is the Independent Probe Newspaper.
Permit us to seek clarification on whether or not you acknowledged signing a memorandum of understanding with Finland Police chief, Thomas Elfgren, in November 2019, granting authority to the FINNISH Police to investigate in Liberia, individuals with information on war crimes atrocities, particularly protected witnesses including Gbril Massaquoi, against international best legal practices, especially without the approval of Justice Minister, Musa Dean?
It is IPNEWS’ understanding that you allegedly received USD 35,000.00 into signing this 9-count memorandum of understanding. How can you exonerate yourself over this allegation?
As Deputy Minister of Justice, Republic of Liberia, and chief prosecutor, do you regret that your action undermine the International justice system and exposed protected witness Massaquoi to undue harm?
Are you aware that you might just face other international isolation as a lawyer for your action to expose internationally protected witnesses?
Thank you and we look forward to your response.”
Since then, the former Solicitor-General, had demanded that IPNEWS retract the article as he was never contacted for his side.
Evidence by IPNEWS proved that Cephus received IPNEWS’ WhatsApp inquest and calls but rejected ever seeing them. After the message was sent, it few days before the story was published.
Another testimony to prove IPNEWS’ article over allegations of former Solicitor-General receiving US$35,000, into signing the purported nine-count MOU, is longtime advocate Darius Tweh, whom Mr. Cephus knows very well.
Tweh has repeatedly acknowledged holding an interview in which he exposed the former Solicitor-General of allegedly receiving US$35,000 to avail internationally protected witnesses to the Finnish Police Chief.
Certainly, Tweh is on record with both IPNEWS and international investigators of testimony that controversial human rights advocate Hassan Bility told him that the former Solicitor-General, Sayma Syrenius Cephus was given US$35,000 into availing internationally protected witnesses.
Why Not Darius Tweh, but IPNEWS?
It has been completely heated that even with sidelines meetings seeking former Solicitor-General Cephus’ response to why and how did he sign an agreement to avail internationally protected witnesses to the Finnish Court against international justice practices, Cephus continues to remain tightlipped.
Not in a surprising move, the former Solicitor-General has written the National Media Council of Liberia, an auxiliary of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), an umbrella organization for all media houses in Liberia, to investigate a false accusation linking him to taking a bribe of US$35,000, and not Darius Tweh, who has publicly spoken about Cephus receiving the money as bribe.
Prior to his letter to the National Media Council of Liberia, IPNEWS understands that the former Solicitor-General has been crisscrossing the grounds of Temple of Justice, on Capitol Hill seeking to indict the Independent Probe newspaper, on an accusation of being an accomplice to Justice Minister Dean, whom he believes is the mastermind of the leaked 9-count Memorandum of Understanding.
What was written?
Following six days of the communication to Min. Dean and SG Cephus without responses, IPNEWS carried the caption “CEPHUS RISKS ICC INDICTMENT——-As US$35K Finnish Trading Money Draws Bitter Water (Part I)”.
The article detailed how in February 2021, a Finnish court started trying a Sierra Leonean accused of war crimes allegedly committed in Liberia between 2001 and 2002. In a first-of-its-kind move, the court temporarily relocated to Liberia for part of the trial.
Gibril Massaquoi had been living in exile in Finland for a decade. The charges associated with the alleged war crimes were brought against him in a Finnish court. According to a press release from the office of the former Solicitor General, due to the logistical difficulties involved in moving witnesses to Finland, especially following the outbreak of Covid-19, the court decided to temporarily relocate to Liberia.
Fifty-year-old Massaquoi, originally from Sierra Leone, stood accused of torture and rape of civilians, crimes allegedly committed in Liberia during his time as a commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) between 2001 and 2002.
On February 14, 2021, a day before the Finnish court officially moved to Liberia, the former Solicitor General told RFI via telephone in Monrovia that it is not true that the Finnish court will hold a trial in Liberia.
“There is no court transitioning to Liberia. What is being done is something like a deposition because there can be no foreign court that can fully be seated on Liberian soil to conduct the trial,” he emphasized that it was part of the mutual legal assistance (MLA) scheme which involves cooperation between different countries for the purpose of collecting and exchanging information, and not a full court trial.
“Under the MLA, we allow countries to come to Liberia and provide something that has to do with deposition and it is not assuming full court trial or a war crimes court coming to Liberia,” Cephus added.
In September 2019, Liberia’s President George Manneh Weah requested the legislature to advise and provide guidance to efforts leading towards the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, including the establishment of the Economic and War Crimes Court but no progress has been made as yet.
In all this, the authoritative Independent Probe newspaper has reliably gathered that Cllr. Cephus would soon be arrested for exposing internationally protected witnesses to undue harm.
According to classified transcripts obtained by IPNEWS, they detail how ‘messy’ the former Solicitor General allegedly worked to criminally conspired to defraud global governments in pursuing fraudulent war crimes prosecution for personal and financial gains.
In the case of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, Protected witness Gibril Massaquoi, Darius Tweh, an advocate for fair prosecution of persons responsible for war crimes, narrates to the IPNEWS that Mr. Hassan Bility told him that former Liberia Solicitor General Cephus received US$35,000 from them meaning he Bility and Alain Werner to get the Memorandum of Understanding from the Ministry of Justice in Liberia to allow the Finnish Police to conduct the investigation in Liberia against UN Protected Witness Gbril Massaquoi.
A copy of the MOU obtained by IPNEWS shows the purported signatures of Cephus and Thomas Elgren, Finland Police Chief.
“Hassan Bility also asked me to participate in the Gbril Massaquoi trials as a prosecution witness, I refused; and while all of this was going on, Hassan Bility was involved with the recruitment of false prosecutor witnesses to testify against Gbril Massaquoi during the planned trial,” Tweh disclosed.
The nine-count memorandum of understanding seen by IPNEWS is not written on the official letterhead of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Liberia, but a flying A-4 sheet dated December 13, 2019, yet both parties allegedly signed upon it in the city of Monrovia. The title of the MOU states: “Principles of mutual understanding and cooperation between the Liberian and Finnish Judicial authorities”
International investigators told IPNEWS that they planted witness and investigator Darius Tweh on former ULIMO child-soldier recruiter Hassan Bility, now Director of the Global Justice Research Project and former Youth Wing Co-Chairman of the All-Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP) which was founded and led by Mr. Alhaji G.V. Kromah, the then rebel leader of ULIMO-K.
“Hassan Bility and his International partners, Civitas Maxima of Switzerland, Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) California, USA, are fake human right group that are have been involved with fraudulent human rights/war crimes advocacy at the expense of Liberia.
“Bility and I were involved with multiple cases recruiting falsely, coaching witnesses from hytiee shops, Parker Paint, including Guinean nationals. At the Kunti Kamara trial in Paris, Alain Werner lied under Oath that CM, GJRP, CJA are not involved with recruiting, coaching, paying witnesses in making a false statement to investigators of war crime trials. I say CM, GJPR and CJA are heavy with fraudulent witness coaching into cases. Tweh was always informing our partners in Washington DC in all of the cases we worked on every step along the way,” a senior international investigator based in Dakar, Senegal told IPNEWS.
IPNEWS understands that both Alain Werner and Hassan Bility’s relationship started when Werner worked within the office of the prosecutor as one of those lawyers for the Special Court for Sierra Leone at the trial of former Liberian President, Mr. Charles Taylor.
It is further alleged that Bility, a witness, who allegedly lied under oath to the SCSL and the United States Govt, that he was never a member of ULIMO & ALCOP, gave Werner the confidence to trust Bility and managed to steal the list of those United Nations Protected witnesses sealed list at the end of Mr. Taylor trial in 2012, from the prosecutor’s office.
