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Charged with coup plot

MONROVIA (Liberia): Authorities in Liberia charged a former House Speaker and an ex-military commander with treason for their alleged involvement in a suspected coup plot, officials said. House Speaker George Kaukau and ex-military commander Charles Julu were among five persons arrested in the plot, Gabriel Williams, a Deputy Minister of Information, said late on Friday. Under Liberian law, treason carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. Mr. Williams said one of the accused, retired Col. Andrew Dorbor, told a state investigation panel on Friday he had been asked in January by Julu to travel to neighbouring Ivory Coast to arrange an arms shipment with an Ivorian border commander. The arrests are the first of their kind since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected and took office last year, following years of civil war that ended in 2003. Julu — a former general and ex-presidential battalion commander who once served as an aide to late President Samuel Doe — was detained on Tuesday along with another former soldier on suspicion of involvement in “subversive activities.” Julu staged a failed coup in 1994 that was put down by a West African peacekeeping force. — AP

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