Court Orders Child Rights Activist Keita, Others Arrested
Saved under Headline, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberia, News, WESTERN AFRICA
Tags: Abraham Keita, Child Rights Activist, Liberia National Students' Union, Liberian National Police, LINSU, LNP, Monrovia City Court, Varney Jersey
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The Monrovia City Court has ordered the arrest of child rights activist Abraham M. Keita and few of his followers.
The order, a copy of which is in the possession of Daily Observer, has charged Keita and others with ‘criminal coercion,’ and was released to the Liberian National Police (LNP) by Stipendiary Magistrate J. Kennedy Peabody.
Keita, last Tuesday, led a group of his supporters to the Capitol Building, holding placards demanding Grand Gedeh District #2 Representative, Morais Waylee, to resign and exonerate himself from an allegation that he raped his 13 year-old niece, as reported by a local daily.
The arrest order for Keita and his supporters was filed by Rep. Waylee, who told journalists they should face him in court. “It is Keita’s right to do his job as an activist, but he must also be willing to take responsibility for his actions,” Rep. Waylee said. The situation started when a local daily claimed that Rep. Waylee raped his 13 year-old niece.
The newspaper report claimed that the victim and her parents settled the issue with the lawmaker, but an unidentified source “blew the whistle on the incident.”
However, Rep. Waylee said in a radio interview that the story is false.
While no one knows who is telling the truth, activist Keita believed the newspaper story, and without confirming that he has investigated the story, recounted it at the event.
Keita said: “The parents of the girl, who are aware that she is a minor, probably have compromised the case, but I am not deterred in doing my job as an advocate for the rights of Liberian children.”
He added that Varney Jersey, president of the Liberia National Students’ Union (LINSU), is behind bars “even though he is yet to be declared guilty of a rape case against him.”
He also claimed that after the protest on Tuesday, two cars with license plates HOR 64 and A34347 tailed (followed) him and his group.
“And security personnel from Capitol Building handed me unsigned court arrest warrants… I refused the arrest order after talking to Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, my legal adviser.
“I have written the U.S. Embassy and other international bodies, who are in the business of protecting human rights, on what is unfolding with our job and we hope they will step in to properly educate our people on the way to maintain peace with all,” Keita added.
