Published: December 23, 2025
GBARNGA, Bong County — In a powerful reminder of the cost of poverty within Liberia’s justice system, human rights lawyer and Liberia National Bar Association Chief of Staff Atty. Jeremiah Samuel Dugbo I has secured the release of at least nine young men who had spent months and, in some cases, years in pretrial detention at the Gbarnga Central Prison for minor offenses.
The releases, coming just days before the Christmas season, have reignited calls for urgent reforms to address prolonged detention of indigent defendants whose cases are often abandoned by accusers. Dugbo disclosed the development Tuesday during a visit to the prison in Bong County, where he met with the freed detainees.
“I redirected my resources toward freedom and worked to secure the release of at least nine young men who had spent years and for some months in pretrial detention at Gbarnga Central Prison,” Dugbo said in an official Facebook post.
According to the lawyer, the young men—born between 1994 and 2005—were accused largely of petty offenses but remained incarcerated solely because their families could not afford legal representation. Dugbo said he has monitored such cases since 2022 and was compelled to act after witnessing repeated violations of the detainees’ constitutional rights.
Invoking due process protections and the right to a speedy trial, Dugbo said he appeared before the court and cited relevant statutes and procedural rules. “Relying on the relevant statutes and rules of court, I requested their immediate release. The court agreed and ordered them released forthwith,” he said.
Atty. Dugbo, who also serves as vice president of the Bong County Bar Association, recounted one case that deeply affected him. A young man identified as John, seen in photographs with a towel wrapped around his head, had been jailed over an allegation involving a rooster.
“He was charged and forwarded to prison and spent nearly a year behind bars without a single hearing in his case,” Dugbo noted.
He said such cases expose a troubling pattern in which individuals accused of minor offenses are detained not because the state is vigorously pursuing justice, but because someone sought to “prove a point” before abandoning the case entirely.
Dugbo said he spent two days in Gbarnga coordinating with the court, prosecutors and correctional authorities to secure the releases. He expressed regret that time constraints prevented him from doing more, citing pressing professional obligations in Monrovia.
“My hope is that they heal from the trauma of prison and go on to live meaningful lives,” he said. “Freedom is the greatnine est gift of all.”
The releases have drawn renewed attention to Liberia’s overcrowded prisons and the growing number of detainees held without trial, many of whom remain behind bars simply because they are poor.
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