By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 28 – Sierra Leone's Mission to the United Nations has been sued for "posing an immediate danger [with] mold and vermin infestation."
The Sierra Leonean Mission is at 245 East 49th Street, right near the United Nations which also poses dangers, in its impunity. But now on May 27, the country's Foreign Minister David J. Francis has been served, at OAU Drive, Tower Hill, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo here.
After Inner City Press exclusively reported on this case, and was contacted by media in Sierra Leone, now the Foreign Ministry has issued a two page press release saying it has been directed to our media report, and calling it misleading and inaccurate.
While unlike the even more corrupt UN of Antonio Guterres, who rather than respond to questions using UN Security to rough up and ban the Press that asks them, the Ministry has spoken, it does not stand up. Just consider the photos of how they left the site of their "Chancery."
And they do not specify what they say the US State Department did not do. (Inner City Press got answers from the State Department on May 27, here, but has not yet asked about this, since it didn't know of the Ministries response until May 28). Watch this site.
Next door neighbors have sued the Mission in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which Inner City Press while banned from the UN by Antonio Guterres now covers daily.
The complaint identifies Sierra Leonean diplomats' "failure to follow basic fire-prevention protocols... creating an opportunity for flying debris, fire and other dangers."
The SDNY docket reflects that, of the complaint, "service was accept by Fatima (F/B 40-49 years old, 5'4" tall, 140 pounds with black hair and brown eyes) who advised at the time of service that she is authorized to accept on behalf of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the UN."
On May 27, the SDNY's Deputy Clerk certified serving the country's foreign minister, pursuant to the Provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 USC 1608(a)(3).
Inner City Press will be following this case, and others of impunity.
The case is Harvey et al. v. Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the UN, et al., 21-cv-4368 (Ramos)
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