Summary hearing in George Boleys suit against Advocates for Human Rights to be heard tomorrow

Summary hearing in George Boley’s suit against Advocates for Human Rights to be heard tomorrow

The defamation sue against Advocates for Human Rights filed by George Boley's, a former rebel leader in the Liberian civil

conflict is scheduled for view entirely without merit and have moved for summary judgment the People’s News desk has learned.

The summary judgment hearing is scheduled to take place on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 at 8:30 am before the Honorable Patrick J. Schlitz in U.S. District Court, 316 North Robert Street, 100 Federal Building in St. Paul.

George Boley sued the Advocates for Human Rights sometime in 2008 for defamation. His defamation claim resulted from a statement made in 2006 during a radio interview about the Liberian truth and reconciliation process. In that interview on Minnesota Public Radio, the deputy director of the Advocates, along with Jerome Verdier, chairman of the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) in Liberia claimed that George Boley was in custody in the United States, along with Chuckie Taylor (the convicted son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor) for crimes committed in Liberia.

Boley is the former leader of the Liberia Peace Council (LPC), an organization widely known for atrocities commented against innocent civilians during the Liberian civil war. When George Boley appeared before the TRC recently in Liberia he denied ever being the leader of the LPC. Dr. Boley acknowledged that although he founded the Liberia Peace Council in April 1990, he had no involvement and knowledge of a warring faction named the Liberia Peace Council.

The Liberia Peace Council (LPC) was a rebel group that participated in the Liberian Civil War under the leadership of George Boley. The LPC emerged in 1993, partly as a proxy force for the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). It made substantial gains against the National Patiotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in southeastern Liberia, vying for control of commercial operations in timber and rubber.

A predominantly ethnic Krahn organization, it drew supporters from the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and the AFL, but also from other ethnic groups who suffered under NPFL occupation. It had about 2,500 militants in its ranks.

Like all groups that participated in the civil war, the LPC committed serious human rights abuses including murder, rape, torture and looting in an effort to terrorize and depopulate rural areas held by the NPFL.