Liberia: Two Foreign Residents sentenced to Death
By: Augustine N. Myers – The Temple of Justice in Liberia through Criminal Court “B” has sentenced two foreign residents to death by hanging after being convicted for Murder. The two Chinese Nationals, Meng Wang and Li Ma were convicted for brutally murdering a South African, Wesley Craig Demas on September 6 of 2009.
Giving the final judgment on Thursday evening, October 14, 2010 after denying a motion for a retrial filed by the defense, Judge Blamo Dixon told the Court that the convicts are subject to deportation under escort to their country of origin within a reasonable period of time with the copies of the final judgment.
He said, “Wherefore, and in view of the foregoing facts and attending circumstances and the laws controlling, it is the considered opinion of this Honorable Court that the unanimous guilty verdict of the trail jury is hereby confirmed and affirmed”. Judge Dixon declared the two men guilty of the crime of murder, in contravention of section 14.1 of the new panel code of the Republic of Liberia.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Liberia has been ordered to issue the appropriate deportation documents to ensure that the verdict be enforced and executed in China.
Legal Counselor Blamo Dixon who is the Presiding Judge of Criminal Court “B” at the Temple of Justice, handed down the verdict against the two men who allegedly entered Liberia by way of a fishing vessel.
According to the history of the case, defendants Meng and Li were indicted on March 5, 2010 for allegedly murdering their closed friend, a South African Information Technologist Wesley at his Randall Street apartment in Central Monrovia on September 6, 2009.
The indictment says the two men wilfully and intentionally murdered their friend and took away his black lap top, silver gray digital camera, a bed alarm clock, DVD player and a silver gray cigarette lighter. The defendants were arrested according to the indictment, and corroborated with State witnesses’ testimonies, when they had gone to sell the laptop around the Airfield Community in Monrovia, on September 7, 2009.
However, the legal counsel of the two men has opposed to the Court’s judgment and announced an appeal for further legal redress at the Supreme Court.
Already, murder being an inadmissible crime in China with its penalty being a clear-cut death without judgment, defendants Meng and Li have earlier told sources closed to them that they would rather prefer to die in Liberia than to be returned to their homeland.
