Attack at Supreme Court

About a dozen of women on Friday October 23, attacked and beat up Madam Maria Morgan Luyken, accused of trafficking over 550 Liberian children out of the country to the United States at the entrance of the Cafeteria at the Temple of Justice.

She had gone into the cafeteria to speak to her lawyer before the final verdict in the child trafficking case against her. It was at that point that she was intercepted by supporters of the mothers who have filed the child trafficking case against her.

It took the efforts of court securities and others to rescue her from lynching by the angry women.

The beating up of Maria Morgan Luyken on the grounds of the Supreme Court came hours before a child trafficking guilty verdict was handed down against her at the Criminal Court “B”.

The incident on Friday, is a clear example of how the country appears to be sliding into lawlessness. Attacking a person on the grounds of the Temple of Justice is prohibited here.

Maria Morgan Luyken is accused of trafficking over 550 Liberian children overseas to the United States of American with many of the children’s whereabouts unknown to their parents, years after she took them.

But the current case involved two women who are demanding the return of their children taken from them by Ms. Luyken allegedly unknown to their parents under the guise of adoption.

Maria Luyken and two others were indicted in 2018 for trafficking the children to the United States unknown to the kid’s mothers Mathaline Johnson & Elizabeth Johnson.

The case was heard in 2019 but the verdict had delay until group of women stage a peaceful protest at the Temple of Justice last week Thursday to call the attention of Chief Justice Francis Korkpor.

So a day after the demonstration, Criminal Court ‘B’ Presiding Judge Ceaineh Clinton-Johnson finally ruled in their favor on Friday.

Judge Ceaineh Clinton-Johnson Friday handed down a guilty verdict against Madam Maria Luyken for trafficking the two Liberian children to the children mothers. While the female defendant’s two accomplices, Ernest Urey and Edwin Walk were acquitted by the Court due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Though Ernest Urey and Edwin Walk were acquitted but Judge Clinton-Johnson’s October 23, verdict claims that wright of evidence adduced in Court by the government lawyers were convincing to convict defendant Maria Morgan Luyken for trafficking of persons.

.