Liberia: Jewel Howard-Taylor Seeks One-Day Court Delay, Citing Illness and Need for Medical Examination
MONROVIA — Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, held at the Monrovia Central Prison on cocaine trafficking charges, wants her preliminary examination pushed back a day so a doctor familiar with her medical history can examine her first.
Her lawyers, in a letter titled “Request for Continuance” filed at the Monrovia City Court at about 7:54 a.m. Tuesday, asked Stipendiary Magistrate Cllr. L. Ben Barco to move the matter from Tuesday to Wednesday at a time convenient to the court, according to a handwritten notation on the document signed by court personnel identified as Abel Kalay.
The letter stated that Howard-Taylor is currently unwell and requested that the Ministry of Justice allow a physician familiar with her medical history to examine her. The lawyers said the consultation was scheduled for Tuesday, making it difficult for her to attend the proceedings the same day.
“At the same time, she has expressed her desire to participate fully in all stages of the preliminary examination,” the lawyers said.
The letter was signed by Cllr. Laveli Supuwood, Cllr. Kabineh Ja’neh and Cllr. Finley Y. Karngar. It does not ask the court to dismiss the case or terminate the preliminary examination, only to shift the hearing by a day.
Howard-Taylor faces multiple criminal allegations stemming from a government investigation into an alleged transnational cocaine-trafficking network said to have operated through Liberia. The allegations include importation and unlicensed exportation of controlled drugs and substances; unlicensed sale, trading, and transportation of controlled substances; illicit trafficking; criminal conspiracy; criminal facilitation; criminal solicitation; money laundering; and aiding the consummation of crime.
Investigators have also alleged that she received money from individuals they identified as connected to the suspected network: US$45,000 during a trip to Dubai, US$75,000 from Sheikh Bashiru Kante for the Jewel Star Fish Foundation, and US$15,000 in August, for a total of US$135,000. These remain allegations in the government’s case and have not been established by any judgment.
Howard-Taylor was arrested on Aug. 19 at Roberts International Airport and taken into custody by the Liberia National Police. She became ill in police custody and was treated before appearing before the Monrovia City Court, where her health became the focus of a defense application for compassionate medical detention.
Barco granted her request for a preliminary examination but denied the application for compassionate detention and ordered her remanded to the Monrovia Central Prison. The defense excepted to that ruling.
The preliminary examination had already slipped once. The prosecution sought a continuance of the Aug. 28 hearing, saying that senior lawyers and counsellors-at-law assigned to the case were needed for activities surrounding the Supreme Court’s March Term closing.
