The ICJ today urged the Government of Liberia to allow human rights lawyer Tiawan Gongloe to travel abroad.
He was detained for several hours on 12 May at Robertsfield Airport where he was to have boarded an airplane to Sierra Leone to participate as an election observer for the Carter Center election observer team.
The ICJ had intervened on 30 April with President Charles Taylor Liberia and issued an alert after Mr. Gongloe had been detained without charge and hospitalized for injuries suffered as a result of torture in police custody. His arrest was reported to have been undertaken in connection with a speech he had delivered in March 2002 in Guinea, wherein he had discussed the role of civil society in achieving peace in the Mano River Union. Mr. Gogloe is said to be in poor health from the effects of the torture.
The right to leave one’s country is a fundamental human rights, enshrined in article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In addition to permitting Tiawan Gongloe to leave Liberia, the ICJ called on the Government to investigate the allegations of ill-treatment of Mr. Gongloe in custody and that it prosecute any official suspected of committing, ordering or acquiescing in any act amounting to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.
Please write to:
President of the Republic of Liberia
His Excellency Mr. Charles Taylor
Office of the President
Executive Mansion
PO Box 9001
Capitol Hill
Monrovia
Republic of Liberia
Fax: 231 228 026 or 226 544
Mr. Eddington Varmah
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
Ashmun St.
PO Box 9006
Monrovia
Republic of Liberia
Fax: 231 227 872
