Journalist, two others to face military court

The possibility that journalist Hassan Bility and two people arrested by Liberian security officials on 24 June would be tried in a civilian court dwindled on Tuesday after the presiding judge changed his earlier order that the government produce the accused in court. "He said since President Charles Taylor had declared the three 'illegal combatants' the matter was above him and his earlier order that the government produce the three in a civilian court could not be effected anymore," a human rights activist told IRIN on Tuesday from the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Taylor described the three as "dissidents" and said they would be tried by a military court. He also warned that any family found habouring a stranger would be "annihilated", the source said. Men in plainclothes arrested Bility, editor of the Analyst Newspaper in Monrovia, Ansumana Kamara and Abubakar Kamara on suspicion of "operating a LURD [Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy] terrorist cell in Monrovia". They have since been held incommunicado. News organisations reported Information Minster, Reginald Goodridge, last week as saying Bility was not arrested because of anything he published, wrote or said. "He was arrested as the ringleader of a plot to assassinate the President of Liberia." After the government failed to produce the accused before court early last week, the presiding judge on Thursday issued an order to the Justice Ministry to produce the three in court by 10:00 a.m on Friday, failing which he would issue an arrest warrant for Justice Minister, Eddington Varmah. In a related development, the US State Department on Monday issued a statement urging the government "to create the conditions whereby true peace and national reconciliation can occur by encouraging...peaceful political expression and activity" and to lift the current state of emergency. "We condemn the government of Liberia's failure to follow the rule of law and urge it to comply with a Liberian court order to present these individuals publicly. The government of Liberia has held these individuals incommunicado since it acknowledged their arrest on 24 June." "We urge Liberia to adhere to its professed interest in national reconciliation, free and fair elections next year, protection of human rights and freedom of peaceful expression," the statement added.