By Mark N. Mengonfia
Former President George M. Weah said the government of Liberia is using what he calls extrajudicial powers to trample upon the constitutional rights of Liberians who hold opposing views.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the former president said, “What we all witnessed today has further revealed the extent of our democratic decline in the last few years, marked by the continuous use of extrajudicial powers by President Joseph Boakai to trample upon the constitutional rights of Liberians who hold opposing views.”
On Aug. 19, 2026, former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was formally charged in connection with an ongoing investigation into a $317 million transnational narcotics network operating in Liberia and beyond, the Government of Liberia announced through the Ministry of Justice.
At a special joint National Security press conference, Liberia’s attorney general and minister of justice, N. Oswald Tweh, said the charges followed investigative procedures and a review of evidence presented by the Joint National Security Investigative Team.
Howard-Taylor, the former first lady of jailed former Liberian President Charles Taylor, is facing multiple charges under Liberia’s Controlled Drug and Substance Act of 2023. The charges include alleged unlicensed importation of a controlled drug or substance; unlicensed sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution, dispatch in transit and transportation of a controlled drug or substance; and illicit trafficking of a controlled drug or substance.
She is also charged under Chapter 10 of Liberia’s Penal Law with criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation and criminal conspiracy.
In addition, the government alleges that Howard-Taylor violated Section 15.2 of Liberia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law, relating to money laundering.
The Ministry of Justice also announced charges against three alleged members and organizers of the same transnational narcotics network.
They were identified as Nikolai Ivancic and Mihovil Vrovac, both Croatian nationals, and Tara Zaderieko, a Ukrainian national.
But Weah said in his statement that Howard-Taylor had become the latest victim of what he described as rising authoritarian tendencies, which he said have historically plunged societies, including Liberia, into chaos.
“While we support all legal and judicious efforts to rid Liberia of the current drug epidemic, we condemn attempts to use this crisis to score political points,” the former president said.
Weah said Howard-Taylor’s arrest and detention, without prior notice, unlawfully prevented her from traveling and violated her constitutional right to free movement. He also said she was subsequently harassed and detained.
“I have since spoken to the former vice president, who has vehemently, strenuously and categorically denied all the politically motivated allegations being made against her by the Boakai administration,” he said.
“In a government statement today, the Justice Minister read out blanket accusations without providing any supporting explanation of how they were formulated,” Weah said.
According to Weah, the government’s action came after two major cocaine discoveries, with a combined value of nearly half a billion dollars, which officials themselves have acknowledged were brought into Liberia after his administration peacefully handed over power to the Boakai administration.
Rather than treating the investigation with the diligence and urgency it deserves, Weah alleged that the government has sought to “fabricate and concoct” connections to the Coalition for Democratic Change administration while giving what he described as a “slap on the wrist” to its own government and security officials.
He alleged that many of those officials remain at large despite being named and accused as the “true perpetrators.”
“We have continued engagements with several regional and continental leaders to again iterate and underscore to them how the rule of law and democracy in Liberia is being systematically undermined, and how grave a danger such action poses to our peace and security,” Weah said.
He added that despite Liberia’s peaceful democratic transition, President Boakai “seeks to rule as a tyrant.”
“This we must all resist,” Weah said.
“Following my engagements, I shall return to Liberia to rally the CDC, along with all well-meaning Liberians, to resist this tyrannical attempt to trample upon our burgeoning democracy, using all political and legal means guaranteed to us under our Constitution,” he said.
