Monrovia, Liberia — Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Cllr. Augustine Chea has raised serious concerns over what he describes as arbitrary and selective policing by the Liberia National Police in the handling of two recent sexual-offense cases involving senior public officials.
In a strongly worded statement, Chea questioned the evidentiary basis upon which police arrested, detained, and forwarded to court dismissed Deputy National Security Agency Director Peter Bonor Jallah, Jr., who is accused of sodomizing a 15-year-old boy. According to Chea, the arrest was carried out without DNA or forensic evidence.
At the same time, Chea criticized police for declining to arrest suspended Deputy Youth and Sports Minister J. Bryant McGill, who was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. In that case, police reportedly cited the absence of DNA evidence as the reason for not effecting an arrest and have since announced that McGill has been cleared of the allegation.
Alleged Double Standards
Chea argued that Liberia’s criminal law does not require DNA evidence as a precondition for arrest. He emphasized that under the Criminal Procedure Law, police are empowered to arrest a suspect where there is reasonable suspicion or probable cause that an offense has been committed.
“Victim statements, witness accounts, medical reports, and surrounding circumstances may lawfully form the basis for reasonable suspicion,” Chea said, noting that DNA evidence, while important, is not a statutory requirement at the arrest stage.
He stressed that the legal threshold for arrest is distinct from the higher standard of proof required at trial, warning that selectively demanding DNA evidence in some cases but not others constitutes an abuse of police discretion.
Constitutional Concerns
Chea further maintained that the inconsistent application of arrest standards violates Article 11(c) of the Liberian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law, as well as Article 20(a), which protects personal liberty and due process.
“Treating DNA evidence as indispensable in some cases but optional in others undermines the principle of equal treatment before the law and weakens public confidence in the justice system,” he said.
Call for Uniform Enforcement
While acknowledging that police were correct to arrest and charge Jallah based on probable cause rather than DNA evidence, Chea said the same standard should have been applied in the McGill case. He described the decision to clear McGill without a transparent explanation as “troubling and disheartening.”
Chea concluded by asserting that, in the interest of the rule of law and public accountability, J. Bryant McGill remains a rape suspect in the eyes of the Liberian people, and called on law enforcement to ensure consistent, impartial, and lawful enforcement of criminal standards across all cases—regardless of status or influence.
The Truth Is Our Guide