MONROVIA: Against the backdrop of the Monrovia City Court having ordered the Alternative National Congress Political Leader Alexander B, Cummings and cohorts within 72 hours to produce the original copy of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) framework document that was alleged to have being altered, Liberty Party’s embattled chairman Musa Hassan Bility has sued his own senior LP partisan Senator Abraham Darius Dillon for slander and libel with attachment in the tune of US$1 million. According to Bility’s lawyers, Senator Dillon must prove in court the criminality of his party Chairman or risk going to jail. “As we speak, the sheriffs are on their way to have him arrested and brought under the jurisdiction of the court. This is a civil action – an action that somebody must be held personally accountable for your action,” Bility’s lead prosecution counsel Cllr. Arthur Johnson stated Wednesday. However, the accused, Senator Abraham Darius Dillon, says he will submit to the law, but by then the truth will be known.
According to Cllr. Arthur Johnson, the Consortium of Legal Practitioners Incorporated, the law firm that he represents as CEO and senior legal consultant, filed an action of damages for wrong, for libel, and slander by attachment against Montserrado County senator Abraham Darius Dillon, claiming one million United States Dollars in general damages for his wrongful action and defamation against LP Chairman Musa Hassan Bility.
“As you all know, Dr. Bility is the chairman of Liberty Party, one of the most popular political parties in the Republic of Liberia. We have filed this action in his interest, on his behalf, on the following grounds that sometime in December, from December 8, 2021 to January 2022, Senator Darius Dillon alleged and accused, defamed, tarnished, stigmatized and degraded the reputation of Dr. Musa Hassan Bility, and said the following words: “Musa is a criminal and fraudster, and I can prove it.” That is what Senator Darius Dillon said against the good-earned reputation of Dr. Musa Hassan Bility. He went further and said that Dr. Musa Hassan Bility is a criminal and that he altered criminally and confessed for his criminal action altering the CPP document.
Cllr. Johnson further noted that as legal counsel to the embattled LP Chairman, Mr. Bility approached his law firm complaining Senator Dillon regarding the defamation of his (Bility’s) reputation.
“Under our laws he came to us and we said that he has an actionable case that you can sue before the court of law and indeed he can be held accountable. Under our law, when a person makes a statement against your reputation and defames your reputation, stigmatizes your reputation, and that statement that he made is false and misleading, and he did it with actual malice, under our laws you have the right to take the person to court for judicial scrutiny, for him to be held accountable for his action.
“The action of Dr. Musa Hassan Bility to come to court is in line with law. The law says when we say slander – and I will explain what does it mean when we say slander, libel, and by attachment. When you make a statement against the reputation of a person, and say that this person is a criminal, and that statement is in writing, it was transcribed in a print media or electronic media, and it went nationally or internationally, and it defames and tarnishes your reputation, obviously it falls under the office of libel.
“When you orally make a statement in the media, on Facebook, social media and what have you, that two or more persons hear the statement, and that is wrong and it defames the reputation of the person, it embarrasses the person, it inconveniences the person, it causes emotional distress and mental anguish, then that is an intentional infliction of emotional distress. Under our law, when that statement is being made orally, it is what we call slander. So this is an action of damages for wrong – for libel and slander by attachment,” Cllr. Johnson stated.
Regarding the issue of slander by attachment, Cllr. Johnson noted that when one sues a person, and doesn’t want the accused to roam freely, the complainant is obligated to demand from the court that the defendant produces a particular property, because the action that has been you have filed suggest that the complainant will win the case, and there will be money compensation.
“If he does not have the money, he goes to jail. If he has the money or has the property, he must give that property as collateral to the court to guarantee that even when judgment is being made against him, the court will be able to use that collateral as a particular indemnity to the action filed against him. If he is unable, he goes to jail,” Cllr. Johnson noted, adding that, under the given scenario, Senator Dillon has been sued through an action of damages for wrong, by libel and slander by attachment.
“As we speak, the sheriffs are on their way to have him arrested and brought under the jurisdiction of the court. This is a civil action – an action that somebody must be held personally accountable for your action. In this country and all over the world, no one makes an irresponsible statement that defames the reputation of another person and must go free. The law says, and even under the international convention of human and people’s rights – the UN Convention, it says that people are free to make statements, but when those statements are made, they must be accountable, and that is the theory, the doctrines under our laws, even our Constitution, Article 17. You have the freedom of speech, but you must be accountable for any abuse thereof,” Cllr. Johnson averred.
The renowned Liberian criminal lawyer said, the main reason that LP Chairman Bility instituted the court action Senator Dillon is to set precedence.
“We need to make our young generation that are growing up, especially those that we lead, taking into consideration Senator being a senator of Montserrado County who was elected by the people of Montserrado County – many young people listened to him and believed in him, he must be somebody that must carry the ethics of the Legislature, particularly the Senate, which is the House of Elders. So when he makes a statement that is premature, irresponsible, and goes against civilized norms of society, the law says he must be called to book and to answer. That is the reason we have called to act on behalf of Dr. Musa Hassan Bility,” Cllr. Johnson stated.
Dillon Responds
In the event of the Bility lawsuit, Senator Abraham Darius Dillon has responded cryptically.
“No one is above the Law, and no one should be above the Law. And as one that respects the Law; I will submit to and before the Law. There and then, we will know,” Senator Dillon posted on his social media wall Wednesday.
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