Howard-Taylor’s lawyers had asked the court to allow her to stay at a hospital in Monrovia, citing a health emergency. Local media reported that she suffered an asthma attack and had high blood pressure while in police custody following her arrest.
The former vice president, who served from 2018 to 2024 and is the wife of former president Charles Taylor, is facing charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and other offences as part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network.
She was arrested on August 19 at Roberts International Airport while attempting to leave Liberia.
Her lawyers reject the accusations and say the case is politically motivated.
Investigators, however, say they have travel records, audio recordings, witness testimony and evidence they believe links Howard-Taylor to members of an alleged cocaine trafficking network.
Three other foreign nationals have also been charged in absentia in connection with the case.
The prosecution comes after Liberian authorities last month seized and destroyed about 4.2 metric tons of cocaine, valued at roughly $317 million, in an operation that also implicated senior police officials.
The case is unfolding as West Africa faces growing concern over its role as a transit corridor for cocaine moving from South America to Europe, with traffickers exploiting weak enforcement and porous borders.
Howard-Taylor has not been convicted, and the allegations against her will now be tested in court.
If senior political and security figures are being drawn into major narcotics investigations, how deep has organised drug trafficking penetrated state institutions in West Africa?