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The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), based in Accra, Ghana, is sending a team of human rights lawyers from Ghana and Nigeria to Liberia to assist in the defense of the four journalists detained on the charge of espionage.

PRESS RELEASE

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), based in Accra, Ghana,
is sending a team of human rights lawyers from Ghana and Nigeria to
Liberia to assist in the defense of the four journalists detained on
the charge of espionage.

The lawyers are from the network of human rights lawyers who work with
the Media Foundation to provide legal assistance to journalists who in
the course of their professional functions become victims of state and
other forms of repression.

The Liberian Government arrested the four journalists: Joseph Bartuah,
Abdullai Dukuly, Jerome Dalieh and Bobby Tapson of ‘The News’ on
February 21 for publishing that the government spent US$50,000 to
purchase spare parts for a helicopter when civil servants had not been
paid for four months.

A criminal court that is hearing a jury trial involving six police
officers accused of murder transferred the case from the magisterial
court and indicted the journalists on February 28. This means the
journalists will be lingering in prison since the Liberian justice
system forbids a criminal court from handling two jury trials at the
same time.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
Media Foundation for West Africa
P.O. Box LG 730 Legon
Accra, Ghana
Tel: 233-21-242470
Fax: 233-21- 22-1084