By Olando Testimony Zeongar
MONROVIA – Following the filing of a writ of Habeas Corpus, former Chief Justice Gloria Musu-Scott and three others reportedly charged on Tuesday by the Liberia National Police (LNP) with multiple crimes in the murder case of Charloe Musu, were on Wednesday, released from police custody, where they spent at least a night in detention away from the comfort of their beds.
Habeas Corpus, which is a recourse in law, is a legal term meaning an accused person must be presented physically before the court with a statement demonstrating sufficient cause for arrest.
So, in keeping with a Writ of Habeas Corpus prayed for on Tuesday by lawyers representing the accused, which was granted by the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Assizes “C’ for Montserrado County, sitting in its May 2023 Term of court, Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, Gertrude Newton and Alice Johnson, were on Wednesday produced in court by the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Justice and the LNP, after which the four ladies were signed for and released to the care of their legal team by Criminal Court “C” Presiding Judge, Cllr. Blamo Dixon.
Contrary to widely publicized assertions from government circles on Tuesday that the four women, having been reportedly charged for the gruesome murder of young Charloe, would have been formally indicted on Wednesday, which would have prevented them from being released from detention, the GoL failed to present to the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Court “C”, the cause for the four ladies to be further remanded in detention by the police.
Earlier on Tuesday, amid reports that the LNP had charged former Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, along with three other members of her family for the murder of Charloe Musu, lawyers representing the ladies filed for a writ of Habeas Corpus against the George Weah-led government, demanding that the Ministry of Justice, the LNP and all those under their control and authority, produce the living bodies of Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, Gertrude Newton, and Alice Johnson, who they stated were at the time being held in police custody.
Additionally, the lawyers demanded that the Justice Ministry and the LNP, also made a presentation to the First Judicial Circuit, Criminal Court “C”, stating the cause for the detention of Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott et al by the police.
Predicated upon the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Sheriff of Montserrado County was mandated by the Clerk of Criminal Court “C” to serve the Ministry of Justice and the LNP the Writ, together with the petitioners’ complaint and informed the two criminal justice institutions to make their legal returns to said Writ on or before 12 noon on Wednesday, 21 June 2023.
The Sheriff was also mandated to notify the Ministry of Justice and the Police that failure on their part to have filed such legal returns on the time and date stipulated in the Writ, judgment would have been rendered against them and the Court would have granted unto the petitioners the relief being sought by them.
On 22 February 2023, Charloe Musu was mercilessly murdered allegedly by an unidentified assailant at her family’s Lower Virginia residence, according to former Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, who is considered the mother of the deceased.
Following the fatal incident, Liberia’s erstwhile Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) former Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, Sr., in a vivid description, alleged that Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee was the mastermind behind Charloe’s murder, indicating at the time that the Monrovia City Mayor hired officer Varlee Telleh of the Monrovia City Police, to have sodomized ex-Justice Musu-Scott before assassinating her, inferring that the alleged assassin failed on such deadly mission and instead gruesomely took away the life of young Charloe.
Howbeit, Cllr. Verdier’s allegations against Koijee and Telleh, have since been refuted by both men, who continue to maintain their innocence in the grim murder of Charloe, who was stabbed to death multiple times.
