The Judiciary in Liberia says it has dropped all charges against prominent government critic, Henry Costa, who has been in personal exile in the United States since 2020.
The West African Country’s Department of Justice announced in a statement on Thursday evening that the charges against him had been dropped with immediate effect and invited Mr. Costa to return to Liberia to “live freely like any other citizen”.
Henry Pedro Costa is a popular Liberian radio talk show host on Root FM who is popularly known by his followers as “The Voice of the Voiceless”. Costa is also a fierce critic of Liberian President George Weah and is one of the leaders of the Council of Patriots, an opposing group that organised mass protests against Weah in June 2019.
Augustine Nagbe, alias “General Power,” an ex-rebel general, led a team of armed riot police in October 2019 to the premises of Roots FM 102.7 to effect the closure of the radio station.
The Liberian Immigration Service claimed the popular host traveled with fake documents but Mr. Costa insisted he travelled with a laissez-passer document, which he said he obtained from the foreign affairs ministry but he later presented himself at the headquarters of the Liberian Immigration Service (LIS) unaccompanied by his lawyer Findley Kangar.
Despite the dropped charges, the Judiciary however warned Costa against spreading disinformation and called on him to respect the law.
“The ministry will not stand idly by and allow anyone to hijack the democratic space with lies, invective, and disinformation for selfish reasons,” the ministry said.