New York, July 26, 2002—The Court Martial Board, Liberia's military
court, yesterday gave the government an August 7 deadline to produce Hassan
Bility, a prominent newspaper editor who has been detained incommunicado
since June 24.
Bility, editor of the weekly Analyst newspaper, was arrested with
two other individuals—Ansumana Kamara and Mohammed Kamara—and charged
with collaborating with the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Democracy (LURD). The three have been held incommunicado since then
and have not been formally charged. The rebel group has denied any connection
with the detained men.
On June 26, Minister of Information Reginald Goodridge told a press conference
in the capital, Monrovia, that Bility and the two other people were in
government custody. However, even though Judge Winston O. Henries ordered
the government to produce the accused individuals in court by July 1 and
granted the government a two-day extension to comply, Bility and the others
have yet to be tried or presented in a court of law.
On July 9, Judge Henries ruled that the court had no jurisdiction over
the accused since they are "unlawful combatants" and said they should
be tried before a military court.
The Monrovia-based Analyst has been highly critical of Liberian
president Charles Taylor's regime and has been closed twice this year
on government orders.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed fears, based
on human rights reports, that Bility may have died or been killed while
in custody. CPJ has demanded that President Taylor do everything within
his power to see that Bility's whereabouts are made public.
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