As the Magistrate of the Monrovia City Court (MCC), Judge Jomah Jallah is set today to hand down ruling whether or not the trial of Mr. Alexander B. Cummings should be televised, the Defense team representing the interest of Mr. Cummings has been stating why they are opposing televising the court proceedings when the case gets underway.
According to sources closed to the lawyers, the Government of Liberia is seeking an excuse to block people from accessing the court by taking decision to televise the trial and in the process blocking the citizens from watching the legal proceedings in the process. The lawyers further said that when television is used, only a very few people who have access to television will witness the trial which does not provide any real additional reach out.
The legal team said that if “Cllr. Saymah Serenius Cephus, Solicitor General of Liberia wants to be a star, he can go to Nollywood to perform”. They further noted that not having cameras in the court does not exclude the press and that there is no precedent for cameras in the court, adding that they do not want to include something that will negatively impact the sanctity of the court and the case.
“Cummings wants to be treated as a regular person. He is humble and does not want the glamour of a camera that the regular defendant does not receive”, the lawyers said.
It can be recalled that recently, the Monrovia City Court ordered the arrest of Mr. Cummings, standard bearer of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), based on a complaint filed by the All Liberian Party (ALP) alleging forgery and criminal conspiracy for tampering with the framework document of the Collaborating Political Parties(CPP)
The ALP, which is wholly owned by businessman Benoni Urey, is suing his opposition compatriot for forgery and criminal conspiracy for alleged framework tampering.
The writ of arrest, issued by Stipendiary Magistrate Jomah S. Jallah of the Monrovia City Court, comes just days after the ALP, via its National Executive Committee, voted to withdraw from the CPP.
The ALP, which is a strong political ally of the Unity Party (UP) of former Vice President Joseph Boakai in the now crisis-laden CPP, promised to seek legal action for what they termed as “unlawful attachment” of its leaders’ signatures to the CPP framework document.
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