Human rights Trial Takes Dramatic U-Turn

The treason trial involving human rights activist, Aloysius Toe, seem to have taken another trend, as one of the police officers who allegedly carried out the arrest of Mr. Toe has denied his involvement in the case.

Sharing his testimony yesterday at the Criminal Court "A" after swearing and kissing the Holy Bible that he will say nothing but the truth, the deputy chief of the Special Operation Division (SOD) of the Liberia National Police, Nathaniel Dolo, denied the allegation that he was the one who carried out the arrest of Mr. Toe and his friends.

Earlier, the fourth witness, Mr. Blamo Sieh had testified that on the fateful night of October 28, 2002, at about 11:55p.m., he was arrested by Mr. Dolo from his residence and taken to the police station.

Mr. Sieh further explained that while he was in the police custody, the police again went to Mr. Toe’s home that very night and came back with the wife of Mr. Toe after 12 midnight.

Following the allegations leveled against the SOD chief, he took the witness stand to rebut Mr. Sieh’s testimony. Mr. Dolo explained that on October 29, 2002, while sitting in his office at the Liberia National Police headquarters on Capitol Hill, a sheriff from the Monrovia City Court took some documents to him.

According to Mr. Dolo, the documents the sheriff took to his office indicated that a writ of search was to be executed at the home of Mr. Aloysius Toe at the "Battery Factory" area. He said at the end of the search by some police officers and the sheriff whom he (Dolo) took along, he was later informed by the sheriff that a box containing some e-mail documents was found in Mr. Toe’s apartment.

Speaking further, Mr. Dolo said, "the only time I ever saw one Blamo Sieh was about two days later, on the 31st of October, when a white station wagon with license plate number 1164-GP driven by Blamo Sieh came to my office. When Sieh went to my office, he informed me that one Mrs. Toe had called and said, I, "Dolo Marc" have arrested her husband, Aloysius Toe".

The rebuttal witness continued that while in his office, Mr. Blamo Sieh received a call on his (Blamo) mobile phone, from a person believed to be the special assistant to Mr. Toe. "I monitored the conversation when the voice told Blamo that Aloysius Toe has put them in trouble again. This was when I knew that Aloysius Toe had fled on the day of the search".

The SOD Deputy Chief also explained that he never arrested Mr. Toe adding, "the police, neither myself did nothing to Mr. Toe, since the search warrant was not a writ of arrest. The search warrant was served on Aloysius Toe in the presence of his wife and other occupants".

Questioned about the time, Mr. Dolo said the incident occurred between 6:00-6:30a.m. He further explained that the sheriff visited his office at about 6:10a.m., he drove the vehicle from the police headquarters to Mr. Toe’s Battery Factory residence for five minutes, and the search was conducted about fifteen minutes later. And so, the entire incident occurred 6:00-6:30a.m.

Having listened to the testimony of the SOD Deputy Chief attentively, he was later discharged from the witness stand. The presiding judge, Boima Konto told the court that the case has been adjourned and expected to resume next Friday.