Liberia: Saudi Rice Trial: Gbassay Rejects Guilty Verdict, Declares Innocence, Alleges Pressure to Become State Witness

The ordained Baptist minister says she refused to testify for the prosecution, and warns that the pursuit of accountability must not become “score-settling masquerading as justice”

MONROVIA — Days after a jury at Criminal Court “C” adjudged her guilty in the Saudi Rice corruption case, former National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) official Rosetta L. Gbassay Bowah has rejected the verdict, declaring her innocence in a Facebook post.

---

***By Selma Lomax, [email protected] ***

---

In the lengthy statement, she thanked family, friends, colleagues and fellow clergy for an outpouring of prayers, encouragement, solidarity and love since Friday. She said the support had “renewed my confidence in the face of circumstances that were clearly intended to break me.” As the legal process continues, she said, she wishes to reassure her supporters of her “absolute innocence” and her confidence that “the truth will ultimately prevail.”

Central to her statement is an allegation that she was pressured to cooperate with the prosecution. Gbassay Bowah said that if she has committed any “crime,” it is that she faithfully performed her lawful duties in accordance with her Terms of Reference and the obligations of her office.

She added that her other “crime” may be that she refused what she described as persistent efforts by her accuser and the prosecutors to persuade her to “cooperate” by serving as a State witness.

The post offers no evidence for the claim, and it has not been independently verified. Her position, however, was unequivocal. “As a servant of the living God, an ordained Baptist Reverend,” she said, she could never conspire to testify falsely against any person or speak of matters about which she has no knowledge. “My conscience is not for sale,” she wrote.

She described the personal cost she believes such a compromise would carry. No temporary advantage, she said, is worth “inviting the curse that follows bearing false witness against the innocent.”

That burden, she said, is one she will not bring upon herself, her children or future generations. Regardless of “pressure, intimidation, or schemes,” she said, she remains steadfast in her conviction that God, “in His own time and according to His perfect will,” will vindicate her.

Her statement reads as much like a sermon as a legal defense. Gbassay Bowah, who is an ordained Baptist Reverend, wrote that her faith is “built on nothing less than Jesus Christ, His blood, and His righteousness,” and that it gives her the courage to persevere “through this difficult chapter.” She framed the ordeal as a season of trial and tribulation.

Her appeal then widened from her own situation to the state of the nation. Addressing her “co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord,” she urged fellow clergy to keep praying for Liberia, noting that “it is one thing to preach about injustice, and quite another to experience it personally.”

She warned that the country stands at a “critical crossroads” and risks a “vicious cycle of bitterness, vengeance, political persecution, and score-settling masquerading as justice.” Liberia, she said, needs healing, redemption and a renewed commitment to the rule of law, fairness and national unity. She called on citizens to resist the temptation to weaponize political differences, and to work toward a future in which justice is impartial, truth is honored and every citizen is treated with dignity and respect.

Her words arrive against a very different reading of Friday’s outcome. In a statement dated Oct. 10, the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce (AREPT) welcomed the verdicts as a “significant milestone” in the Government of Liberia’s efforts to combat corruption and protect public resources.

According to AREPT, the jury adjudged eight of the 13 defendants guilty, including former Foreign Affairs Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and former Internal Affairs Minister Varney A. Sirleaf. Three defendants were acquitted, and the jury returned inconclusive verdicts on two others.

The case arose from AREPT’s investigation into the alleged misappropriation of 29,412 bags of rice, valued at about US$500,000, donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2023 for disaster victims and vulnerable Liberians. The indictment alleged that 25,054 of those bags were unlawfully diverted or misapplied.

According to the jury tally, Gbassay Bowah was adjudged guilty of Theft of Property, Misapplication of Entrusted Property and Criminal Conspiracy. Jurors were hung on the counts of Abuse of Office and Economic Sabotage.

AREPT Chairman Cllr. Edwin Kla Martin said the Taskforce is ready for any appeal. “We are prepared,” he said, adding that if the defendants go to the Supreme Court, AREPT will “equally go there and defeat them there.” The Taskforce also said it respects the judicial process and the rights of all parties, including the right to appeal.