Judge Willie Denies John Nyanti, Others Released
By Yassah J. Wright
Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie of Criminal Court ‘A’ has denied the release of several co-defendants in connection to the arson attack on the Capitol Building on December 18, 2024.
Willie denied the release of the defendants on grounds that their bonds have not satisfied the court, specifically, the human sureties that needed interview and residences identified.
Those detained in connection to the crime of arson, according to court’s record, included Kivi Bah, alias Kaba, Jerry Pokah, alias Tyrese, Stephen M. Broh, Amos Koffa, Eric Susay, John Nyanti and Thomas Isaac Etheridge.
The accused had been detained at the Monrovia Central Prison awaiting court trial.
They were recently indicted by the government for allegedly burning down a portion of the Capitol Building in December, last year.
In his decision, Judge Willie said, “there are other conditions that must be met to guarantee the release of the defendants from pretrial detention.”
The judge named those conditions as human sureties, which all of them are yet to be interviewed and concluded, “or else, in the absence of those conditions, the accused will remain detained until the case is call for hearing in open court.”
Prosecution has earlier challenged the validity of the bond, when the court was still examining the bond itself.
That, Judge Willie said, was another reason to not release the defendants, “until we can also determine the exceptions to the bail, the defendants will not be released as per the law. But if the bail is not correct, that means, it is not valid, the defendants will remain in prison until the bond is corrected as it has been done in other criminal cases.
Judge Willie: “The court having said that, the motion to release the defendants now is hereby denied.”