All four men were arrested in Liberia's capital Monrovia on Wednesday and were later released on bail.
Liberia grand jury indicts Sable Mining, officials for bribery(Reuters)
A grand jury in Liberia on Wednesday indicted government officials, including the speaker of parliament and the head of the ruling party, along with London AIM-listed Sable Mining on charges including bribery.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered an inquiry into Sable's acquisition of an iron ore concession in northern Liberia after the watchdog group Global Witness made accusations of wrong-doing in a report earlier this month.
A
grand jury in the capital Monrovia accused the defendants of bribery
among other crimes, according to the indictment seen by Reuters.
The
indictment alleged that the defendants conspired to use their positions
to amend Liberia's public procurement and concessions law. It asserted
that they succeeded in changing the law to give the Minister of Lands,
Mines and Energy the power to declare a concession area as a non-bidding
area.
The indictment did not specify how Sable
Mining allegedly benefited from the change to the law and Reuters was
unable to independently determine if Sable actually did.
In its report Global Witness claimed that the amendment allowed the company to win the concession without a tender.
A
spokeswoman for Sable said the company would not comment on the
accusations made in the indictment, which cover a period including 2010
and 2011.
Previously Sable said the report appeared to be based on "unreliable" testimony from three former business partners.
The
indictment named as defendants Sable Mining, parliament speaker Alex
Tyler, Varney Sherman, a senator and chairman of President Johnson
Sirleaf's Unity Party, and Deputy Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy
Ernest C.B. Jones, as well as Christopher Onanuga, a Liberian
businessman.
All four men were arrested in Liberia's capital Monrovia on Wednesday and were later released on bail.
Tyler
has rejected the Global Witness report, which, like the indictment,
alleged that bribery had been used to facilitate Sable's acquisition of
the concession.
He was not immediately reachable
for comment. His office said he was not planning to comment on the
indictment, which alleges he requested and received $75,000 to help
amend Liberia's procurement and concession law.
As
he left court on Wednesday, Sherman told reporters he would not comment
on the indictment. While he acknowledged in a May 13 news conference
that his law firm had worked for Sable, he denied the Global Witness
allegations of wrong-doing.
Neither Jones, accused
in the indictment of receiving $5,000 for providing the technical
advice for the alteration of the procurement and concession law, nor
Onanuga responded to text messages and telephone calls. The indictment
did not give specific details of the allegations against Onanuga.
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