Military court orders government to produce detainees

Liberia's Court Martial Board has ordered the Liberian government to produce by 7 August three men who were arrested a month ago, including a local newspaper editor, Hassan Bility, news agencies reported. Bility is the editor of the Analyst Newspaper in the capital, Monrovia. Men in plainclothes arrested the three on 24 June on suspicion of "operating a LURD [Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy] terrorist cell in Monrovia". They have reportedly been held incommunicado since then. The Court Martial Board ruled on Thursday in Monrovia that the government must produce the "living bodies" of the three, news agencies reported. Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, had accused the government of violating the men's constitutional rights by refusing to bring them to court. On 4 July a civilian judge had ordered them produced in court, threatening to have the justice minister detained if this did not happen. However, on 8 July the same judge said President Charles Taylor had declared the three, illegal combatants and therefore the matter was beyond him. Taylor had described them as "dissidents" and said they would be tried by a military court. News organisations had quoted Minister of Information Reginald Goodridge as saying Bility was arrested because he was the ringleader of a plot to assassinate Taylor. Earlier this month, the US State Department issued a statement condemning "the government of Liberia's failure to follow the rule of law" and urging it to comply with the court order to present the men in public. "The government of Liberia has held these individuals incommunicado since it acknowledged their arrest on 24 June," the State Department said.