A LIBERIAN court on Tuesday denied bail to four Liberian journalists arrested on espionage charges over an article criticising the government’s military spending. Judge J. Boima Kontoe argued that under US law, used in Liberia whenever local laws fail to address the issue at stake, espionage was a capital crime and therefore non-bailable. Four journalists from the News daily – managing editor Joseph Bartuah, editor-in-chief Abdullah Dukuly, news editor Jerome Dalieh and senior reporter Bobby Tapson – were arrested last month. They were charged with espionage for publishing an article headlined “Government spends 50_000 to repair helicopters at a time it can hardly pay civil servants’ salaries.” – AFP