Chief Justice Francis Korkpor
Chief Justice Francis Korkpor, after coming under heavy public criticism for his role in the impeachment of Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh, appears now to be in a fight-back stage being so concerned now about his private life, even as his expected retirement takes effect in 2022.
Chief Justice Korkpor and the entire justice system are under pressure in recent days. With a U.S. government report having implicated the Judiciary of taking bribes and subsequent freezing of Senator Varney Sherman’s assets, the impeachment of Ja’neh and the case involving Lofa County Senator-elect Brownie Samukai have also compounded the criticisms that demean the functions of the Judiciary.
The open spat between Chief Justice Francis Korkpor and the President of the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) over whether there were political prisoners in Liberia in 1979 during the administration of the late President Tolbert has claimed public attention and has become the subject of public debate in many circles, both private and public.
The Chief Justice, claiming that he had been accused by unnamed individuals that while serving as Research Coordinator at the Bureau of Corrections, Ministry of Justice, in 1979, he was involved in the torture of political prisoners has dismissed the accusations as untrue and intended to injure his reputation.
Cautions Minister Tweah not to allow President Weah to approve it without their inclusion
Justices of the Supreme Court, having realized that the Judiciary may not be counted among beneficiaries of the US$10.5 million Supplementary Budget just passed by the Legislature, have thrown their voices out to remind the Executive and Legislative branches of govenment not to sideline the third branch of Government.
The Justices, therefore, have resolved to ask the President not to approve the budget if the government did not allot any of the money to the Judiciary this time around.
The Justices vented their anger yesterday when they cited Finance and Development Planning, Minister Samuel Tweah and Justice Minister Musa Dean to explain why the judiciary is left out of the supplementary budget.
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Over Record of ‘political prisoners’ from Tolbert era
The utterance by Chief Justice Francis Korkpor that there were no political prisoners when he was employed with the Ministry of Justice, decades prior to becoming the head of the Judicial Branch of the Government, did not go down well with Counselor Tiawan Gongloe, who himself was a victim.
Addressing the opening of the March 2021 Term of the Supreme Court, Justice Korkpor, for the first time, recalled allegations that while working with the MoJ in the late 1970s as Research Coordinator at the Bureau of Correction, during the administration of President William R. Tolbert, it was reported that he tortured political prisoners.