Star Radio reports that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  told residents of  Grand Gedeh County  she “would push for the release of their kinsmen Dr. George Boley.” Boley as you know was arrested by ICE agents on January 15 in Rochester, “President Johnson Sirleaf promised she would work with the United States government to ensure the release of Dr. Boley.”

This is an ambiguous report. Hopefully, more details will follow. In some senses, the U.S. intends to “release” Boley, that is– deport him.  Whether he will face charges in Liberia is an entirely Liberian matter.

As we know, Liberia has not prosecuted a single crime related to the civil war. The President’s comments to the citizens of Grand Gedeh certainly don’t indicate that Boley will be the precedent setting criminal case. President Johnson Sirleaf may have been playing to the hometown crowd, as these comments were directed to what was a presumably Krahn audience in Boley’s ancestral area. But, they can also be taken as an indication that what the U.S. may see as an issue of international justice inevitably boils down to domestic politics in Liberia.

It should also be noted that while Johnson Sirleaf was singled out by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its controversial findings as among 50 individuals who should be barred from holding public office because of their involvement in the civil war, Boley was not. The TRC did identify Boley as the leader of a warring faction, but did not list him among its “Most Notorious Perpetrators.” In Boley’s prepared testimony before the TRC, he noted President Johnson Sirleaf’s involvement in the Diaspora-based Association for Constitutional Democracy in Liberia and the group’s fundraising efforts for Charles Taylor’s NPFL.

The Boley case will be an interesting test for ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit. Their mission is to prevent warlords and their like from entering the U.S.; and tracking down and removing those already here. But, what happens if you go to all this effort only to see your collar set free?