Liberia, Sept. 21 -- A new order from the Solicitor General requiring prosecutor sign-off before police can charge a suspect lands against a backdrop the U.S. State Department has documented for years: a justice system where arrests often outrun evidence, and pretrial detainees can wait 180 days or more without ever getting a hearing.

By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com

Monrovia - The State Department's most recent human rights report on Liberia, released last year, found that although the law provided for a defendant to receive an expeditious trial, lengthy pretrial detention was a serious problem, with the length of detention in some cases equaling or exceeding the maximum sentence for the alleged crime. The repor...