MONROVIA, Sept. 30 -- President Joseph Nyuma Boakai's name entered the courtroom record Monday as former General Services Agency (GSA) Director-General Mary T. Broh testified in the Saudi-donated rice trial, linking a letter from Boakai's transition activities to a request for rice for young people working on a national cleanup campaign.

By Willie N. Tokpah

Broh, a subpoenaed defense witness for former Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and other defendants, told Criminal Court "C" that Kemayah's intervention in the rice matter was intended to "rescue the rice" and described the indictment against her and other officials as "character assassination."

Her testimony offered a different account from the prosecution's theory that th...