IPNEWS: Former Justice Minister Frank Musa Dean is speaking out after the Supreme Court cleared him of allegations linked to the disputed 53.34-carat diamond case, valued at $11.5 million.
The court ruled that the lower court’s arrest warrant was improperly issued, as Dean was acting within his official capacity as Attorney General of the Republic of Liberia.
However, Dean is now cautioning Liberains against assuming that individuals who served in government are corrupt, emphasizing that his actions were lawful and part of his duties.
“Not everyone who serves in government is corrupt. Stop the generalization. It is becoming a crime to serve in government ” warns Dean “Sooner or later, good people will begin to refuse government service, and it will be right up the alley of the corrupt and unpatriotic individuals.”
According to Dean, too many Liberians are seething with hate, anger, envy and jealousy, suggesting “Cultivate positive energy, and stop using your time and energy to tear others down.”
Dean however sounds like a real champion of the rule of law, staying committed despite facing criticism from all angles.
“When I served as Minister of Justice, I was lambasted by all sides, by people both in and out of government, but I remained steadfast, committed to the rule of law,” Cllr Dean noted..”Fairly and transparently I presided over the security apparatus during our recently held elections without any major incident.”
The Supreme Court’s decision paves the way for the Civil Law Court to continue proceedings involving other parties.
The dispute stems from a 2023 incident involving the discovery of a 53.34-carat rough diamond in Smith Town, Gbarma Mining District #2, Gbarpolu County.
The gem became the center of competing ownership claims, with local miners T. David Sluward and Abraham Kamara—represented by former Solicitor General Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus—asserting ownership, while the government argued that the mining license for the claim had expired, thereby transferring rights to the state under Section 9.9 of the New Minerals and Mining Law of 2000.
In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sluward and Kamara, recognizing them as the legitimate owners of the diamond. Following that decision, the Court instructed Judge Boima Kontoe to enforce its judgment.
But Judge Boima Kontoe’s enforcement order went beyond a simple transfer of property: it directed that the former Justice Minister, former Mines and Energy Minister Gesler Murray, former Assistant Minister of Mines Emmanuel T.T. Swen, Diamond Dealers Association President Mustapha Tounkara, Ishaka Conneh (alias “Bakut”), and appraiser Korvah Baysah were arrested and jailed at the Monrovia Central Prison.
But, the Supreme Court’s opinion delivered by Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay says that their mandate to Judge Kontoe that grew from the judgment rendered against the Government of Liberia cannot lawfully be enforced against former officials who were not personally named or adjudged liable.
In this instance case, Justice Gbeisay clarified that the mandate in question ordered the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Mines and Energy, to make restitution of the diamond or its monetary equivalent.
“Nowhere in the Mandate or the Judgment of this Court was Cllr. Dean personally named or held liable; and That, however, he , not being a party to the action out of which the bill of information grew, a bill of information is not the proper vehicle to remedy such a violation visited upon the law by the trial court’s judge,” Justice Gbeisay further said.
“That it is the law that courts must confine the enforcement of judgment within the limits prescribed by the judgment itself,” Gbeisay added.
Initially, Dean had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt enforcement of Judge Kontoe’s ruling, which ordered his arrest and detention.
He had repeatedly argued that he was acting under executive law, advising the government on the diamond’s origin and ownership.
Dean’s Legal Argument
In his petition, Cllr. Dean strongly objected to being named among those to be arrested, insisting that neither his name nor the Ministry of Justice appeared anywhere in the original judgment being enforced.
“The judgment, which is being enforced by Judge Kontoe names the Minister of Mines and Energy, his Deputies and Assistant Ministers, Directors, and all other persons acting under their authority,” Dean’s filing stated. “At no place is my name mentioned, nor is the Ministry of Justice mentioned.”
Dean is therefore asking the Supreme Court to cite Judge Kontoe, along with T. David Sluward and Abraham Kamara, to appear before it to show cause why they should not themselves be held in contempt of court for what he describes as an irregular and deliberate misapplication of the Supreme Court’s mandate.
He emphasized that the Ministry of Justice’s involvement in the matter was limited to offering a legal opinion after reviewing documents provided by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which indicated that the diamond was discovered on an expired claim. “No further opinion was issued by the Ministry of Justice and no further action was taken by the Ministry of Justice,” Dean said in his brief.
Diamond Dispute and Government Role
Dean’s argument draws heavily on a January 3, 2023 press release issued by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which detailed how the diamond was disposed of. According to that statement, the Dealer/Exporter paid US$80,146.78 to the Government of Liberia, comprising US$30,116.42 in royalty tax and a US$50,000 fine. The release also noted that the fine was imposed because the diamond had been purchased from a mining claim with expired documentation.
The former minister contends that this record demonstrates that the Ministry of Justice played no administrative or financial role in the diamond’s sale or distribution and that its only contribution was a legal interpretation that the claim had expired and the diamond should revert to the government. He insists that the enforcement of the judgment against him personally is “unjustifiable, procedurally defective, and contemptuous of the Supreme Court’s own mandate.”
Dean also reminded the court that in April 2023, amid rising tensions in Gbarpolu County over ownership of the diamond, the government constituted a Joint Security Board of Inquiry comprising representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Executive Protection Service (EPS), Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), and National Security Agency (NSA).
The Board, according to Dean, concluded that the diamond was indeed discovered in Smith Town on a claim whose license had expired nearly a year earlier, undermining private ownership claims.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy’s final report stated: “The license expired on May 25, 2022, but the licensee made a payment on April 28, 2023—seven days after the diamond was found—because they wanted to claim the diamond. Even at that, the payment cannot be for the period the diamond was found.”
