—- As Justice Minister Rubbishes Secret Letter Transcript

IPNEWS: Espionage is one of the undesirable options for another person and a dangerous venture which undermines the sovereignty of states.

In international diplomacy, Espionage is a process of obtaining military, political, commercial, or other secret information by means of spies, secret agents, or illegal monitoring devices.

Consequently, this, Suspended Solicitor General, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, has blamed his inclusion on recent sanctions at the feet of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Cllr. Frank Musah Dean Jr.

According to a communication to President George Manneh Weah, dated August 19, the suspended Solicitor General, stated that his inclusion in the United States’ recent sanction was triggered by a communication secretly written to the US Ambassador, Michael McCarthy on 15 January 2022 by the Minister of Justice alleging him overlapping functions.”

Cllr. Cephus’ communication to President Weah further stated that Minister Dean’s letter urged Ambassador McCarthy not to take the communication lightly on grounds that “It has the propensity to impede the peace process of our country and the justice system, strenuously arguing, “it is dangerous to have a such bad apple in public service.”

Hours into Mr. Cephus’s accusation against Justice Minister Musa Dean, the veteran lawyer and legal luminary has fired back terming the purported secret letter to United States Ambassador, Michael McCarthy, as a “Complete forgery and the making of Cephus”.

Justice Minister Musa Dean told FrontPageAfrica that the letter circulating on social media and other news media outlets suggesting that he reported the sanctioned and suspended Solicitor General to the U.S. Ambassador was doctored.

He described the letter as “Complete forgery and the making of Cephus”, adding, “So, if he had this letter, dated January 15, 2022, what was he waiting for to bring it to the fore?”

When asked whether the signature was also forged, Cllr. Dean said, “I don’t know. Probably, the signature was traced or lifted. This is not my diction”.

He went on to say the email address (deanmusa95@gmail.com) that appears on the letter is also not his, giving My email addresses are: musdean@yahoo.com and frankmdeanjr@gmail.com as his working and only email address.

The January 15, 2022, communication that only surfaced in the media this week was purportedly written by Min. Dean to the U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy informing him that the Solicitor General has been overlapping his functions.

The letter described Cllr. Cephus’ behavior as one which has the propensity to “impede the peace process of our country and the justice system. It is dangerous to have such a bad apple in public service.”

But Cllr. Dean says the letter was doctored to make it appear that it was based on his complaint that he, Cllr. Cephus was added to the list of sanctioned officials.

Cllr. Cephus was among three key officials of the Weah-led government that were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on August 15.

The suspended Solicitor General said following the letter, a series of press conferences were held, aired, and published by local dailies of a parallel Ministry of Justice being run by the Solicitor-General and Chief Prosecutor of the Republic, which was glaring facts.

Furthermore, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus stated that Minister Dean’s communication claimed that his alleged behavior had claimed President Weah’s attention and other officials of the government and therefore pleaded with Ambassador McCarthy to intervene obviously triggered or significantly contributed to the inclusion of his name on the US Treasury Department sanctions list.

A portion of the communication in the possession of the authoritative Independent Probe newspaper read:

Ambassador McCarthy: “I seriously need a call-up for him that will improve the workings of the Ministry of Justice and other government officials and senior ministers.” See a copy of the letter attached as Exhibit “C/1”.

Cephas insists: “That based on the 15 January 2022 letter and the countless press conferences held in which Minister Dean accused me of running a “parallel Ministry of Justice,” although, without any evidence, I suspect that such slanderous and vile campaign secretly undertaken against me, obviously triggered or significantly contributed to the inclusion of my name on the US Treasury Department sanctions list.”

“Excellency, as a young man who was born and raised in the slums of Liberia, and knowing what corruption has done to our dear country and its people, and given the fact that every time there’s an attempt to apply a Liberian solution to address this social cancer that is crippling our national development goals as a nation and a people, there’s always a campaign of terror and mayhem, beginning with the Rice Riot of 1979, the 1980 bloody coup d’état, and the 14 years of fratricidal war, I think the US government efforts to fight corruption in public places should be graciously applauded as it seems to be the surest way of holding accountable alleged corrupt public officials.”

In this regard, let me first and foremost hail Minister Dean for alerting the US Embassy about my alleged “behavior” although not clearly defined, which he said has also claimed Your Excellency’s attention, and for which he believes the US Embassy should have original jurisdiction over such a “behavior.”

Also, I want to applaud and congratulate the United States Treasury Department for its unwavering drive to tackle any form of “behavior”, waste, abuse, and the mismanagement of public resources, on account of recommendations either from any public official within the Liberian government or from any group of Liberian citizens, especially so when the alleged ‘behavior’ complained of, as in my case, is believed to be inimical to the peace and security of Liberia. Had these steps been taken in the late 70s, early 80s and the early 90s, I am certain, the massive loss of human lives and properties, during the “Rice Riot of 1979, the bloody 1980 military coup d’état, during which 13 government officials were summarily tried and executed for “rampant corruption”, and the 14 years of civil war, would have been averted, and many of our compatriots would be alive today,” Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus’ communication reads.