Passport Shows Alleged Mercenary is Guinean, Contradicting Lawyer’s Claim

Published: November 11, 2024

MONROVIA – The Liberian Investigator has obtained copies of the passport and natioal identification card of Khalif Charif (Sheriff), a Guinean national currently detained in Liberia over alleged subversive activities against the Guinean government. However, Charif’s lawyer, former Supreme Court Justice Kabineh Ja’neh, asserts that Charif was born on Crown Hill in Monrovia to two Liberian Mandingo parents.

“His grandfather was Imam Mata-Saykou Sheriff, one of the most respected Imams of the Benson Street Mosque in the 1950s and ’60s,” Ja’neh explained, emphasizing Charif’s Liberian roots. “Although my client, Khalifa Charif, spent most of his early childhood in the Republic of Guinea due largely to the Liberian civil conflict, that does not make him a Guinean national, as is being falsely circulated by Liberian state security officials.”

However, a copy of Charif’s passport, now in the possession of The Liberian Investigator, lists his nationality as Guinean and records his birthplace as Lola, Guinea.

Charif’s passport

Ja’neh contends that his client has been “kidnapped” by the Liberian government, despite reports that Charif has been handed over to Guinean authorities. He alleges that officers from the Liberia National Police (LNP) and the National Security Agency (NSA) raided Charif’s residence, seizing cash and vehicles without a search warrant, and detained him indefinitely. According to Ja’neh, this operation was conducted under direct orders from the Inspector General of Police and the Solicitor General.

On November 3, 2024, Ja’neh alleges, Inspector General Gregory Coleman led a team of officers to forcibly remove Charif from Monrovia Central Prison in the dead of night, bypassing standard legal procedures. Ja’neh described this action as a “first-degree felony of kidnapping,” accusing the administration of operating outside the bounds of the law.

Ja’neh further claimed that the removal was orchestrated by “senior National Security actors” as “a concrete demonstration of lawlessness under the Boakai administration.”

The former Supreme Court Justice has vowed to organize public demonstrations against national security officials, stating, “There is no longer any respect for court orders under the current administration.”

Ja’neh is calling on citizens to take to the streets in defense of judicial independence and respect for the rule of law, demanding compliance with the court’s orders regarding his client’s release.