Monrovia, Oct. 1 -- Mary T. Broh walked into Criminal Court "C" on Tuesday and gave the defense something it had been missing in the Saudi rice trial: a story jurors can follow.

By Rodney D Sieh

In her telling, nobody stole anything. The rice was rescued, stored in the government's own warehouse, logged in and out with gate passes, and some of it went to feed hungry young people cleaning up Monrovia ahead of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai's inauguration.

It was a confident performance. It also put the President's name into the court record, which is sure to keep this trial on the front page for a while.

But jurors will have to decide more than whether Broh sounded believable. They'll have to decide whether her account explains the rice...