Tweah Alleges Pressure to Overturn Acquittal

By Lincoln G. Peters

SUPREME COURT, Monrovia, June 25, 2026 – Former Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr. has alleged that the government is pressuring Criminal Court “C” Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie to overturn his recent acquittal in the high-profile US$6 million corruption case after a juror admitted possessing a mobile phone during jury deliberations.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Tweah claimed the government has shifted its focus from the ongoing US$19.2 million drug seizure investigation to efforts aimed at reversing the jury’s not-guilty verdict.

According to Tweah, the judge has acknowledged that investigators found no evidence linking him, his co-defendants, or their lawyers to any misconduct involving the jury. He, however, alleged that prosecutors were using the issue of jurors possessing mobile phones during deliberations as a basis to challenge the verdict.

“The complaining juror told the investigation that she had a phone, but that the phone was only used to call their homes. All jurors said they did not speak with any lawyers from the defense or with any of the defendants. But the judge is being pressured to find the ‘law’ to set the verdict aside simply because there was a phone,” Tweah alleged.

He further claimed that the government’s position is, “Find any law, we are the Government. The survival of the Government depends on Tweah not winning.”

Tweah said he was uncertain whether the judge was acting under political pressure or was unable to resist it, alleging that the issue surrounding the jurors’ phones had become a strategy to overturn the verdict.

“Why should Samuel Tweah and the other defendants bear responsibility for prosecutors allegedly planting phones among jurors? Do we manage the country’s jury system? Were we responsible for their surveillance and security? Why didn’t the jurors complain before the verdict or during the trial? Or were they waiting to see the outcome first? We buried this kind of tyranny with the debris of our civil war. It must never return,” he wrote.

The former minister also accused the government of applying double standards by not investigating jurors who unanimously acquitted former Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) Acting Chairman Abdullah L. Kamara in a separate criminal case.

According to Tweah, he had been informed that jurors in Kamara’s trial were not sequestered and were allegedly given money by the government to acquit him.

“Of course there is no investigation because he is the President’s man. That the Government could not influence nine heroic and patriotic jurors against Samuel Tweah is now grounds for setting a revolutionary verdict aside. What a shameless Government,” Tweah asserted.

He concluded by saying he had informed members of the international community about what he described as attempts to manipulate the judicial process.

Neither the Ministry of Justice nor the Judiciary had publicly responded to Tweah’s allegations as of press time.

The controversy follows reports that one or more jurors admitted possessing mobile phones during deliberations, prompting judicial inquiries into whether the incident may have violated jury procedures. However, no court ruling has yet been issued setting aside the acquittal.