TUBMANBURG, Bomi – The Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court has denied a motion from defense lawyers representing defendant Abbas El Debes to have him transferred from the Tubmanburg prison to the Monrovia Central Prison to undergo medical treatment.
Defendants Abbas El Debes, Richard Dickson Tamba, Bashir Lakis, Ghazi Bashar and Hayah Debes were indicted on charges of illicit trafficking in human beings, migrant smuggling, gang rape and criminal conspiracy of some 14 Liberian girls in Lebanon.
El Debes’s defense team, which is led by Cooper Kruah, filed a motion before Judge William Sando to have their client transferred from Tubmanburg to Monrovia to facilitate regular visits with his doctors. The defense claims that El Debes suffers from high blood pressure in addition to kidney problems. The defense promised to make their client available to the court whenever his presence is needed.
Cooper Kruah, Abbas El Debes’s lead defense counsel. Photo: Zeze Ballah
El Debes told The Bush Chicken that he will take actions against the government of Liberia over his worsening health condition.
However, the prosecution’s team, led by Anthony Woah, has resisted the motion and asked Sando to deny the request. Woah’s team contends that they have no reason to believe the defense’s claims that El Debes has been diagnosed with kidney failure and high blood pressure.
Woah noted that there was no medical report attached to the request to support the defense’s claims. Additionally, he said there are qualified medical doctors in Bomi capable of administering the treatment El Debes seeks. “There is a physician at the Tubmanburg prison that caters to inmates and the same could be done to defendant Abbas El Debes,†Woah said.
The prosecution also pointed out the risks associated with transporting the defendant on a daily basis between Monrovia and Bomi, in addition to the costs to the state. “It will also be an undue burden on the state to transport him whereas there is a prison where the trial is taking place,” Woah added.
In his ruling, the judge denied the defense’s motion.
Prosecution and defense lawyers meet outside the court. Photo: Zeze Ballah
Since the government of Liberia indicted the five individuals of the crimes, only El Debes has been placed in the custody of the court. The rest have either fled the country while are still in Lebanon.
In its indictment, the government said between 2011 and 2013, the five individuals conspired to recruit, transport, transfer, and then facilitated the travel of several Liberian women to Lebanon for the purpose of exploitation through deceptive means.
The indictment also said during the same periods; the accusers conspired to place the trafficked women in forced labor, slavery, sexual assault and rape, which is a first-degree felony.
El Debes has pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against him.
