The International Justice Group (IJG) has welcomed the support of the United States Government for the full implementation of all The Recommendations of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC), especially, the Establishment of the War & Economic Crimes Court (WECC) for Liberia to address wartime crimes and atrocities committed within the territories of the Republic of Liberia, during periods of war in Liberia. And for the imposition of targeted sanctions on selected officials of the Weah Government for public corruption and widespread human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
In a recently issued IJG statement signed by its Executive Director, Cllr. Jerome J. Verdier Sr noted that the IJG does not support, however, the use of “Fake Justice Advocates” who in their practice, routinely and habitually, gathered, manufactured false evidence and tell lies through the use of their “coached, false and fake witnesses” program to lie under oath, thereby, conspiring to commit perjury, contrary and injurious to the tenets of substantial justice and the rule of law which we genuinely advocate, profess and uphold.
The IJG’s statement further noted that these Fake Justice Advocates are undesirable; adding that they are deliberate in their pursuits of injustices to fill their pockets as mercenaries would with a seared conscience that ignores the yearnings of victims and survivals for the justice we pursue and the justice a nation so desperately needs to bring closure to a nightmarish past in order to commence the arduous journey to peace and reconciliation.
“These actors, perpetrators of injustices, creatures of “bounty justice” have no place in our work for justice which conforms to the tenets of The Rule of Law and The Principles of substantial Justice and MUST be excluded from this noble effort of the US Government, Liberia’s Development Partners, the UN, International Justice Advocates and ourselves concerning justice pursuits in Liberia relating to the Establishment of “The War and Economic Crimes Court. For Liberia,” the IJG’s stressed in the statement.
Accountability & Prosecution of Fake Justice Advocates
The International Justice Group (IJG) which has been at the forefront of seeking justice and accountability for the victims of the Liberian Civil Wars spanning over fourteen (14) years, seeks to hold accountable, all those institutions and individuals involved with the perversion of justice, through the coaching and production of false witnesses in the prosecution of alleged war criminals in the United States and other parts of the world in Europe, most especially.
“While these individuals and ex-war lords, may have committed heinous crimes deserving prosecution and justice under the rule of law, they are entitled to justice in a fair and just manner that conforms to the principles of justice that holds all accused persons to be innocent until proven guilty based upon the production of credible, verifiable and factual evidence based on the truth,” the statement said.
According to the IJG’s Executive Director, in a prior statement, he previously described the Global Justice Research Project (GJRP), Civitas Maxima (CM) and the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) as bounty hunters, masquerades, fortune hunters and mercenaries who are a disgrace to the body of justice advocacy against war crime.
He said, “There have been numerous cases substantiating the allegations and concerns involving all of these group, and particularly those involving GJRP, who Ambassador Van Schaack (Office of Global Criminal Justice) routinely and inappropriately supports GJRP publicly. Most concerning was her recent public statement issued on December 22, 2022 where she publicly addressed the people of Liberia about the establishment of the War and Crimes Court of Liberia and specifically commended the work of the GJRP. Her past and current affiliation as a Board Member of the CJA and publicly cited affiliation between CJA, GJRP which includes Bility’s bio being published on their website confirm the conflict of interest between Beth Van Schaack, Hassan Bility/GJRP, Carmen Cheung Ka – Man/CJA and Alain Werner/CM.”
Further, he indicated that the conflict is extremely damaging to the process of establishing the War and Economic Crimes Court and Ambassador must recuse herself from the process and cease and desist promoting GJRP, CM and CJA who are subjects of serious allegations of criminal misdeeds associated with the war crimes prosecutions they have been involved with.
“Specifically, those involving witnesses and information relating to any of those investigations and prosecutions for War Crimes, Human Rights Violations and Immigration Fraud. In our judgment, they have all been tainted and some issues are currently being litigated.”
According to the IJG’s statement, some of these investigations involve cases that were prosecuted in the US and/or involved US persons and a United Nations back Special Court for Sierra Leone, who was significantly funded by the United States government. As a result, the US Congress should seriously consider investigating these allegations as they involve US funds and US government personnel that were involved.
Accordingly, the IJG’s statement said some of the Fake Justice Advocates are Hassan Bility – Global Justice and Research Project. Based out of Monrovia, Liberia. As Executive Director, he has developed an expertise at recruiting and coaching false witnesses and fake victims in Liberia to tell tales under oath based on memorized scripts prepared by him and his partners out of the imaginations of their heads and TRC Transcripts in some instances. Mr. Bility recruits from amongst his tribesmen, in Liberia and neighboring Guinea, with promises of financial gains or a better life overseas guaranteeing these immigration and migration benefits along with his co-conspirator, Alain Werner, which are well-documented.
As a founding member of the defunct United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia led by Alhaji G.V. Kromah (ULIMO-K), he served in the capacity of recruiter of child soldiers during the Liberian Civil Wars and Co-Chairman for the Youth Wing for The ALL Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP), the political outshoot of the defunct ULIMO – K warring faction, in the 1997 Elections. A fact he falsely denied on his US Visa documentation committing a crime by falsifying his US immigration documents. He has patently committed the very same crime he has accused several other Liberians of committing as perpetrators of war crimes.
Mr. Alain Werner – Civitas Maxima – Based out of Switzerland, is the mastermind and creator of the criminal scheme. He worked with the Special Court for Sierra Leone with the Prosecution, which gave him access to his protégé, Hassan Bility. He had access to funding and their “business venture” proved lucrative enough to create another front in Liberia – the recruiting panel – where Bility was sent and trained to manage and operate.
The deal was sealed, and Bility became a versatile and productive partner, being a warlord himself and a member of the Mandingo tribe, which was, for a while, persecuted during the war but later ended up constituting the bedrock of the ULIMO – K Faction which pursued a hate vendetta agenda against their own people, regardless; they swelled the witness pool of Mr. Hassan Bility ascribing the very crimes they committed to accused persons in their well-staged, orchestrated trials for war crimes.
Carmen Cheung Ka – Man – Executive Director Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) – Based in California, are a “Fake Justice Advocates” and affiliates of Mr. Alain Werner, who as head of the Civitas Maxima, are all closely allied with Mr. Hassan Bility. They are affiliated, associated and involved with the false coaching and fake witness recruitment scheme, as part and parcel of an integral fake witness recruitment and coaching program, instrumental to producing false statements and false testimonies that were used to fraudulently and unwittingly (as far as prosecutors were concerned) prosecute suspects of Visa fraud in the US, even though, the initial intention was to prosecute for war crimes, the pieces of fake evidence were not credible enough to sustain a prosecution for war crimes.
CJA Global Advisory Council
According to the statement, there is a serious conflict of interest involving Beth Van Schaack, who serves as the Ambassador for the Office of Global Justice at the U.S. Department of State. She also served and continues to serve on the CJA Global advisory Council as a Member of the Board of Advisors which has worked and continues to work closely with Bility and Werner. She also served as the Acting Executive Director of CJA. Despite the numerous allegations of corruption made against both Bility and Werner she continues to publicly support and praise them for their efforts having knowledge of the serious allegations made against them. Some of those allegations were confirmed during the trial of Gbril Massaquoi, who was acquitted unanimously by a 4-Judges Panel of Finnish District Court on April 29, 2022. On December 22, 2022 Ambassador Van Schaack issued a public statement from the Department of State Headquarters to the people of Liberia praising the actions of Bility and Werner.
IJG Demands …
Ambassador Van Schaack has to recuse herself from the establishment of the Liberia War and Economic Crimes Court. Further, these “Fake Justice Advocates”, Hassan Bility, Civitas Maxima’s Alain Werner, and the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) MUST be excluded, prevented and stay clear of the justice, advocacy and delivery processes, leading to the establishment and operations of the War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia. Otherwise, the process will be tainted with corruption and run the risk of losing credibility, public trust and credibility with the Liberian People and the International Community that justice will be served – and delivered impartially in Liberia.
The statement mentioned that there is no doubt that these accused persons may be potential suspects in war crime prosecutions because of the various roles they might have played in prosecuting wars in Liberia, but justice demands and guarantees to all accused persons or alleged perpetrators the right to free and fair trial in a court of competent jurisdiction based on credible evidence gathered by impartial evidence gathering processes that elicits objective and real truth as opposed to the manufacturing of victims and false testimonies to fit a narrative fed to the false victims and witnesses by Bility and Werner through hours of coaching these false witnesses on what to say, how to say and how to act in open court, feigning emotions as a victim on the stand for private and personal gains – PROFITEERING!
“A pedigree of fraud and travesty Playing the suspicious dual roles of counsels for fake victims and prosecutors at the same time, these fake and false justice “advocates” do not contribute to the justice push, in Liberia, but rather distract from this advocacy pursuit. Alleged perpetrators who were all, invariably victims of fake or false justice, suffered the worst travesty of justice imaginable. These perpetrators must be stopped and not allowed to fester any longer, having enjoyed unfettered operations for well over a decade,” the statement noted.
These allegations, the statement further indicated have been previously reported by the US press in 2022 wherein an Opinion Editorial suggested that within the State Department, there should be some serious soul searching. As charges surfaced against Bility, US Ambassador Michael McCarthy invited him to the US Embassy in Monrovia to imply US support for his efforts. “Ambassador McCarthy remarked that the painstaking efforts of the GJRP to research war crimes has demonstrated that a group of committed Liberians can achieve justice for war crimes victims,” the embassy’s press release stated. McCarthy got it exactly backwards; that he was unaware of the depth of GJRP duplicity raises questions both about the embassy’s detachment from reality and its overreliance on a small set of agenda-driven informants.
“For Foggy Bottom, the problem is not just Liberia. In 2015, the Belgian National Police arrested Michel DeSadeleer on accusations that he enslaved victims to mine diamonds and also provided weapons to the Liberian civil war-era Revolutionary United Front. Civitas Maxima provided them the false and manufactured evidence,” the statement stressed.
The IJG’s statement noted that DeSadeleer was an American citizen, and his wife’s aunt had been the US Ambassador to Togo. Justice moves slowly, however, and the stigma of being accused of enslavement is not something that can be undone. After near two years in prison, DeSadeleer committed suicide. Subsequently, it became clear that the evidence against him was also tainted and that he was not guilty of the crimes for which he was accused. Civitas Maxima, meanwhile, raised funds off its cases and became a multimillion-dollar organization.
According to the statement, some of the other investigations involving Bility, Werner and CJA embroiled in allegations of providing coached witnesses to lie to authorities against a US person and other countries including, but not limited to the US, UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland and Liberian a US person are as follows:
Laye Sekou Camera (1993) recruited by Hassan Bility as a child soldier in 1993. Bility’s father and Laye’s father were very good friends. When rebels killed Laye’s father, Bility took advantage of the grieving child and told him you need to take revenge against those rebels who killed your father, so the death of your father will not be in vain. He took Laye out of Liberia to the ULIMO – K base in Guinea. Bility in 2020 pled with Laye to lie against some suspects in court trials that were coming up. But Laye refused and by his refusal, he offended Bility and company who filed false claims against him with USCIS. This matter remains unresolved, pending in court after it was initially suspended for lack of evidence, pending and awaiting substantiating evidence from Bility who needs to recruit false witnesses who will sign sworn statements created by Bility.
Michel Desaedeleer – September 2015 (US Citizen – Deceased) Falsely accused of committing war crimes and sexual enslavement by Hassan Bility, whose false testimony against Mr. Deseadeer eventually led to his imprisonment and subsequent suicide before the truth of his innocence could be established.
Agnes Reeves Taylor – 2 June 2017 Was arrested and detained in Great Britain based on the testimonies of Bility’s coached witnesses. She was eventually released by British Authorities since the evidence against her were unsubstantiated.
Martina Johnson – September 17, 2014, having resided in Belgium since 2003 Martina Johnson was arrested based upon false testimonies submitted to Belgium Authorities by coached witnesses recruited by Hassan Bility and Company including Alain Werner, the mastermind, who spearheaded the operations that led to the establishment of Bility’s Global Research and Justice Project (GRJP) as an extension of their Enterprise to Liberia.
Mohammed Kromah – Resided in Europe without proper immigration and resident papers. He was recruited by both Bility and Werner to provide false testimonies against Agnes Reeves Taylor and Alieu Kosua. Bility and Werner prepared false affidavits on his behalf, and he was granted asylum in Switzerland as part of the rewards for his false testimonies. The victim he mentioned, and accused Agnes Reeves Taylor of killing, was later discovered to be well and alive in Great Britain.
Alieu Kanneh – also resided in Europe without immigration papers. Recruited by Bility and Werner to provide false testimonies against Alieu Kosiah and Agnes Taylor. Bility and Werner prepared false affidavits for him, and he was similarly granted asylum in Great Britain.
Varfley Dorley – June 2018 Approached by Hassan Bility to bear false witness and lie against Martina Johnson. He refused and was threatened with immigration repercussions. He told Bility and the US Agents Bility directed to him, that he is a Muslim and therefore will not lie. He maintained that he does not know nor is he acquainted with Martina Johnson in any way, manner, or form. They said she severely wounded and nearly killed his brother during the conflict in Liberia. He repeated that he is not aware that his brother was wounded by her, and his brother backed up his statement that the person who attacked and wounded him was not Martina Johnson. In a meeting arranged by Bility with a United States Immigration personnel, Varfley repeated his position that he will not lie and was again, threatened with “severe immigration consequences”.
According to the statement, Bility got one James Fasuque to join him in filing false claims against Varfley to the effect that Varfley was an undesirable resident, an “Islamic Fundamentalist”, and an active rebel and killer during the Liberian civil wars. A removal proceeding was begun against Varfley. An immigration Judge dismissed the cause in 2022 for lack of sufficient evidence in Varley’s absence since he’d earlier fled to Canada, out of fear from incessant threats from Bility and his accomplices. Not aware of the Judge’s actions, United States Customs and Immigration Agents then pursued him, Varfley, to seek his cooperation and say nothing of their interactions in case of any future investigation. Dorley, aware of ongoing investigations, said no. So they told him he will never return to the US where his wife and children live. On his way back to the US, Dorley was informed at the Canadian Border that he has forfeited his asylum status and told to accept to be deported back to Liberia. He said no he cannot return to Liberia. Therefore, he has since been held in “WITHHOLDING “at the US/Canadian Border for the past four to five months.
The statement also indicated that Gibril Massaquoi – Out of sheer greed and travesty, Massaquoi, a protected Sierra Leonean witness, living in Finland on account of his valuable assistance and cooperation with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, was reported to the Finnish Authorities as being a war crime perpetrator for crimes he “committed in Liberia”. Bility and Werner, being fully aware of the truth that Massaquoi never fought war in Liberia, and was under United Nations protection at the fake, manufactured time of his alleged crimes in Liberia. In fact, there was no incursion or fighting from Sierra Leone to Liberia In order to undermine the establishment of a war and economic crimes court for Liberia, the duo, Werner and Bility, conspired and set out to establish by their lies against Massaquoi that it is legally preferable to conduct Liberian War Crimes Prosecution outside of Liberia to negate the advocacy for one to be established in Liberia against the wishes of successive presidents (Weah and his predecessor) – a political gambit from which Bility and Werner who stand to reap substantial financial rewards. They recruited false, fake, manufactured “witnesses” to testify to a non-existent and unverifiable facts that placed Massaquoi in Liberia, at a more than impossible moment, to create a wartime scenario that lends credence to the fallacious narrative that Massaquoi was a Liberian warlord, resident abroad and is triable in any Western Nations with “universal jurisdictions” statutes, thus negating the need for bringing justice home to the Liberia people, their paid rewards from political benefactors are beyond estimation.
Also, the statement added that Brigadier General (Ret) Moses Wright, Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) was the Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia firstly Under the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) of Liberia President Dr. Amos Sawyer and Liberia National Transitional Government (LNTG). At the time General Wright was the Commanding Officer of the 1st Infantry Battalion in Schieffelin under the Peoples Redemption Council (PRC)/INA and the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) led Govts, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia didn’t recommended General Wright for prosecution, but Bility and his cohorts at CJA took advantage of a TRC narrative, based on a witness’s uncorroborated testimony, to falsely accuse General Wright of war crimes. They used this narrative to raise up fake witnesses who lied under oath, deceiving an unsuspecting judge or court to sustain this travesty. A source who worked with Hassan Bility on most of his war crime cases. In 2019, source informed investigators that there were some United States Investigators coming to Liberia and Bility asked this source to be a witness against former AFL General Moses Wright alleging he participated in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre in July of 1990. The Source did not want to be involved as a witness and told Bility NO! This occurred before the arrival of the Investigators from the United States. According to the source, Bility was recruiting witnesses to provide false statements against General Wright with the full knowledge of Civitas Maxima (CM), and the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA). Civitas Maxima, upon the arrival of the US Investigators to Liberia arranged the interviews to take place Mamba Point Hotel in Monrovia. Although the source declined to participate in the investigation and provide false statements to the US Investigators, Bility again contacted the source and advised him they were at the Hotel interviewing the false witnesses about the Lutheran massacre.
Again, the statement said the source was asked by Bility – “Are you willing to testify against General Wright?” and the source again, refused.
“Colonel Moses Thomas (Ret) Armed Force of Liberia former Commander of Special Anti-Terrorism Unit (SATU) of the Armed Forces of Liberia Under the NDPL, IGNU. Colonel Thomas was the Security Coordinator for NGO’s including other Security responsibilities. Colonel Thomas was falsely accused of participating in the July 1990 St. Peter’s Lutheran Massacre.”
“This allegation came from the CJA, GJRP, and CM. The allegation was refuted in writing with letters from the family of the then Bishop of the Lutheran Church, including his son Eddie Diggs, who resides in New Jersey, the United States. Also, the former Interim President of Liberia, the late Amos Sawyer, prior to his death in 2022 who had oversight of National Security Forces produced a letter disputing the allegations made by GJPR, CM and CJA.”
“President Sawyer stated that Colonel Thomas was not part or involved in the commission of any human rights violations during the Liberian Conflict. There is abundant evidence that Bility and cohorts had first- hand knowledge of these facts and were aware that his actions of coaching witnesses to lie and produce false statements were ridiculously criminal and continued in all of these cases because they could not resist the temptation to make money for themselves under the guise of pursuing “war crimes prosecutions” in Europe and the United States,” the IJG’s statement concluded.
Ambassador Van Schaack’s Open Letter to the People of Liberia – United States Department of State
Another Human Rights Group Scams the West | American Enterprise Institute – AEI
Too Many Human Rights Organizations Have Lost Their Way | American Enterprise Institute – AEI
Swiss Rights Activist Trial to Begin in Liberia (liberianobserver.com)
Is Verdier the mouthpiece of the US Government?
America has its diplomatic channels dealing with Liberia!
The congau-native inequality in the Doe’s era is surfacing, with a Verdier’s as was Charles Taylor with Doe.
Liberians have come of age to buy out on this!