{"id":42002,"date":"2019-12-19T20:22:23","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T20:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42002"},"modified":"2019-12-19T20:22:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T20:22:23","slug":"weah-critic-arrives-in-liberia-before-planned-anti-govt-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42002","title":{"rendered":"Weah critic arrives in Liberia before planned anti-gov’t protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A prominent critic of Liberian President George Weah<\/a> has landed in the country before anti-government protests planned for later this month.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of cheering supporters welcomed Henry Costa after his arrival on Thursday. The host of a popular radio show, Costa frequently criticised Weah before authorities closed his station in October.<\/p>\n

More:<\/h4>\n

“I am very excited seeing such a crowd here to welcome me,” Costa told reporters at the airport before heading to the centre of the seaside capital, Monrovia, in an open-top car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was not arrested as you can see,” said Costa, described by local media as “the US-based owner” of the now-shuttered Roots FM, who hosted his morning show via the internet<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I am here for the protest and the protest must go on.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Costa is also one of the leaders of the Council of Patriots, an opposition group that organised mass protests<\/a> against Weah, a former international football star, in June.\u00a0Another protest is planned for December 30.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the Liberian Ministry of Justice refused to authorise the rally last month, labelling calls for the president to step down unconstitutional.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Weah, who was sworn in as Liberia’s president in January 2018, is under growing pressure over his management of a financial crisis<\/a> in his impoverished country.<\/p>\n

Bhofal Chambers, an MP from Weah’s party, accused the opposition of treason.<\/p>\n

“Calling for an unconstitutional removal of an elected president is unquestionably a crime of treason, terrorism and subversion,” he said at a news conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In October, the government shut down Costa’s radio station – after accusing it of inciting violence.<\/p>\n

It also closed a radio station owned by a government official.<\/p>\n

Still traumatised by back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola<\/a> crisis, Liberia is struggling to revive its flatlining economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inflation<\/a> is rampant, according to the World Bank<\/a>, and civil servants regularly go unpaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent critic of Liberian President George Weah has landed in the country before anti-government protests planned for later this month. Hundreds of cheering supporters welcomed Henry Costa after his arrival on Thursday. The host of a popular radio show, Costa frequently criticised Weah before authorities closed his station in October. More: “I am very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}