Torturing for Evidence: How the Boakai Administration Leads on Human Rights Abuses—Violating Both Liberian Constitution and International Laws
- Michael T
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
Monrovia, Sept. 23—Liberia’s veneer of legality is cracking. Recent medical reports, conducted under the authoritative Istanbul Protocol and ordered by Criminal Court ‘A’, produce an unvarnished catalogue of torture—systematic, sustained, and sanctioned by state agents. The glaring physical and psychological injuries—blindness, shoulder dislocation, post-traumatic stress—are not isolated accidents, but compelling evidence of institutional brutality, all orchestrated under the auspices of law enforcement led by key actors including Gregory Coleman, Nelson Freeman, Prince C. Johnson, and Justice Minister Oswald Tweh.
Article 21(e) of Liberia’s 1986 Constitution pledges, “No person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment.” International law requires zero tolerance. The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) mandates: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever… may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
UNCAT further demands, “prevent… other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment… committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official.” Liberia is failing this global litmus test—delaying real protections, refusing to root out abusers within its ranks. The Ministry of Justice, police leadership, and Legislative stonewallers now stand in the dock of international opinion.
Detainees battered by Liberian police—Kivi Bah Kaba, Broh, Nyanti, Etheridge, Pokah, Susay—are the flesh-and-blood consequence of political lethargy and legal cynicism, sanctioned and enabled by the highest offices. Liberia’s courtroom drama is now world stage; the verdict must be accountability, not more hollow ceremony. Justice is due—not only for battered bodies and trauma-stricken minds, but for a nation’s claim to legitimacy in the eyes of its own laws and the world.
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