Liberia: Man, 24, Charged with Human Trafficking, Jailed

The Monrovia City Court has jailed a 24-year-old man accused by the Liberia National Police for crimes relating to human trafficking, criminal conspiracy, and forgery.

Defendant Even Garlo is being jailed at the Monrovia Central Prison for a non-bailable offense as he awaits trial. The charge relating to human trafficking in persons is a non-bailable offense. As such, the defendants do not qualify for bail.

The police, in an unsealed indictment, claimed the defendant tricked two victims with false promises of a better life in Cote d’Ivoire but end up having them forced into prostitution.

According to the police, the defendant used deception and coercion to sell dreams of a better life in Cote d’Ivoire to young and impressionable women, who are sponsored to be forced into a miserable life of torment, sexual abuse, and prostitution at the hands of their captor.

Garlo’s indictment was based on a complaint filed by his victims, Ophelia Kpeh and Nuch Stewart. Both claimed that they were recruited, and processed from Liberia to Cote d’Ivoire with an understanding of better life but, upon their arrival, the defendant’s sister informed them the promised job was prostitution.

The victims in their complaints alleged that Garlo informed them that his sister had asked him to find women for job opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire.

“We spoke to the defendant’s sister, Dekontee Geeplay, on phone through his influence. After the conversation, the defendant told them to transport themselves to the Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire border, where someone will help them to travel to Cote d’Ivoire to meet his sister Dekontee,” the victim said.

“When we got to the border, we spoke to some Ivorian nationals who helped us to cross from the Liberian border to Cote d’Ivoire. The next morning, Dekontee sent transportation, and we were taken to Dekontee’s house,” the police claimed on behalf of the victims through the indictment. “We were then informed that the job was to become a prostitute. Dekontee told us that if we do not get involved with the prostitution business, she would resist our coming back to Liberia.” 

The indictment added that the victims, after some time, managed to call their families back home to inform them about the situation, which led to a massive search resulting in the arrest of the defendants.

Before defendant Garlo would traffic his victims, he alleged that he sought the parent’s approval to travel, which he got. However, Garlo later claimed that he was not aware that the victims traveled to Côte d’Ivoire because he left for Grand Gedeh County to watch the ongoing county meet.

“They spoke directly with Dekontee on messenger and video, prior to their departure to Côte d’Ivoire, in his absence. Garlo further claimed that he was not aware of the kinds of work the victims were going to engage in in the Côte d’Ivoire,” the indictment claimed.   The police indictment, meanwhile, comes days after the sixteenth Judicial Circuit in Bopolu City, Gbarpolu County brought down another individual, Anthony Sumo, guilty of human trafficking.

Sumo was sentenced to six years imprisonment on December 14, by assigned Circuit Court Judge, His Honor Joe S. Barkon. The convict was at the Salayea Checkpoint in Bong County in February of this year while attempting to traffic 22 children from Gbarpolu County.

The trial of Sumo and Co-defendant Elizabeth McCree started in November, but McCree was granted bail to travel due to illness. As a result, Sumo was accorded a separate trial, which produced witnesses from the state and defendant. On December 9, Star Insurance Company produced the living body of McCree before the Court as it was mandated by the Court, which scheduled the trial for January of 2022.

In a related development, the Chairman of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Taskforce, Labour Minister Cllr. Charles H. Gibson has welcomed the sentencing of Sumo for the act of human trafficking describing it as, a major achievement in the fight against human trafficking.

Minister Gibson said that the task force is committed to winning all of the ongoing trafficking cases currently being heard in Monrovia, Gbarpolu, and Grand Gedeh Counties and soon to start in Voinjama, Lofa County.