Weah to tackle Liberian spy charge case

President Taylor: Weah hopes for an audience

LONDON, (Reuters) -- Liberian soccer star George Weah is planning to meet his country's president next week in an effort to persuade him to free four international journalists being held on espionage charges.

A spokesman for his club, Manchester City said Weah a former world footballer of the year, hopes the meeting will take place on Monday when Weah will be in Liberia for an international match against Mauritius.

The four journalists -- two Britons, one South African and one Sierra Leonean -- were arrested on Friday while they were taping a documentary for CNN and Britain's Channel Four network.

Manchester City spokesman Chris Bird told Reuters: "He is flying to Liberia on Sunday... and he's then planning to meet with the president on Monday."

Channel Four was not involved in Weah's plans, sources at the station told Reuters.

Weah is a hero in his West African homeland because of his success at the highest level of European soccer with clubs in France and Italy before moving to England last season.

Bird said Weah, 33, was on "good terms" with President Charles Taylor and hoped to secure the release of David Barrie, Timothy Lambon, Gugulakhe Radebe and Sorious Samura. Liberia has accused the men of filming in areas where they were not permitted to work, trying to damage Liberia's image and falsely linking Taylor to diamond smuggling and gun-running in neighbouring Sierra Leone's civil war.

A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said the government wished Weah well."We hope Liberian authorities will respond to all appeals positively."

He said it was important that Liberia got "a clear message from everybody" that the men should be treated in accordance with international rules.

A Liberian judge on Wednesday denied bail to the four at a court hearing in the Liberian capital Monrovia, saying the severity of the charge made it impossible. "Espionage is a first degree felony. It is not bailable," the judge said.

The crew's defence lawyer Varney Sherman said he expected to lodge an appeal against the bail ruling on Friday. He said the four, if convicted of espionage, faced up to 10 years in prison.

A spokeswoman for Channel Four television in London confirmed on Thursday that an appeal would be launched.

"We are lodging an appeal with the Supreme Court over the bail decision," she said.

Britain and the U.S. have accused Taylor of orchestrating and personally profiting from the civil war and the arms-for-diamonds trade in Sierra Leone.

Hundreds of people staged an anti-British and anti-American protest in Monrovia on Wednesday.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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