During the afternoon, three witnesses testified – two FBI Special Agents and a newspaper publisher from Liberia. The first Special Agent is a member of the FBI Evidence Response Team, which is made up of one photographer, one surveyor, one medic, a team leader, and a case agent. She testified that she was sent to Liberia in June 2008 to take pictures and document several locations – Benjamin Yeaton’s Residence, the White Flower Complex, and Clay Junction. When the Evidence Response Team attempted to go into the White Flower Complex through a Liberian Court Order an angry group formed near the premises. The team felt their safety was threatened and were not able to enter the White Flower Complex to take photographs and collect evidence. The special agent testified that she was able to take photographs of the complex from the air. The last portion of the agent’s testimony was directed towards the weigh station at Clay Junction. She testified that there was a space underneath the weigh station. Wearing a suit covering her body, a mask, and a respirator, because the air quality was suspected to be dangerous, the special agent went into the space and took photographs. She approximated the height of the space being roughly three and a half feet tall and said that she could not fully stand up during her time in the space.
The second witness was also a FBI Special Agent and is a surveyor on the agency’s Evidence Response Team. Her role was to go to Liberia and collect measurements so that the agency could reconstruct the crime scene. In the courtroom, the government presented a replica (one-sixteenth the actual size) of the White Flower Complex and Benjamin Yeaton’s House.
The third witness was a newspaper man that was reporting on human rights violations committed by Charles Taylor. The man testified that after printing such articles, one day, two men came into the newspaper and told him they had information for him. The newsman walked downstairs accompanied by the two men and his four-year-old son. When they exited the news building, a red vehicle pulled in front of them and people came out of the vehicle. The newsman was kicked and beaten in front of his four-year-old son and then dragged into the red vehicle. The four-year-old boy was left on the street alone as his father was abducted.
The newsman was taken to the White Flower Complex (previously described that afternoon by the FBI Agents). He was confronted by Charles Taylor in person and accused of being involved in a coup to overthrow the government. The newsman testified that he told Taylor he was not a member of any coup plot. The newsman was held captive from June 24, 2002 to December 7, 2002. During that time he said he was moved around through thirteen different locations. One of the locations was Clay Junction in the space underneath the weigh station (the space identified by the first FBI Special Agent as of dangerous air quality, and as identified by the second as three and half feet tall).
The newsman said when he was placed in the weigh station there were three other people already being imprisoned in the station. At no time could any of them stand up straight in any portion of the weigh station. He said that while being held captive he was tortured, being physically beaten and electrocuted with the entry point of the shock being hooked up to his ”private parts”. This appeared to be difficult testimony for the witness to voice in open court and spoke cautiously after deliberating for a moment how to phrase what part of his body was electrocuted.
While still at Clay Junction, another man was placed beneath the weigh station with the newsman. It was completely dark underneath the weigh station so when he entered the witness could not see his wounds, but he said he could smell them. The new cellmate complained that he was forced to hold a pot of hot boiling water above his head and that he had been burned by hot irons. The next time the men were allowed out from their dark cell to eat, the newsman said he saw that the new captive’s body had been badly burned and had fresh wounds that were “leaking fluid”.
The newsman testified that when he was relocated from Clay Junction he was blindfolded and flown to a new location in a helicopter. The new location was an outhouse. He was held in the outhouse with a full toilet and another man. When it rained, the water leaked through the roof. The outhouse was always guarded and there was no place to sit. Before the government finished their direct examination they highlighted the fact that the entire time the newsman was held in custody there were no charges against him, he never had a day in court, and he never was able to consult with a lawyer.
0 Responses to “Afternoon of October 14, 2008 – 1:50pm – 4:00pm”