Kosiah testifies in Kamara’s 2022 case. Kamara has asked that his picture not been done by the court artist in the present case. Credit: Leslie Lumeh/New Narratives
PARIS, France – In a wandering, combative and, at times angry, testimony convicted warlord Alieu Kosiah laid out an argument that he and his former Ulimo ally Kunti Kamara, whose appeal of his 2022 war crimes conviction was the forum for Thursday’s appearance, were innocent.
Kosiah was convicted of multiple war crimes in a Swiss court in 2021. His 2023 appeal upheld those convictions and added crimes against humanity convictions. Kosiah is serving a 20-year prison sentence but could be released as early as 2027 with good behaviour. Kosiah announced in the court, for the first time, that he would take his case to the Swiss supreme court and, if necessary, the European Union Court for Human Rights.
Given he and Kamara are convicted for the same crimes, Kosiah may hope that if Kamara’s verdict is overturned it could help his own case.
Kosiah, who travelled from Switzerland under armed-guard to testify, stood with a thick pad of notes that he used to lay out his case in his six-hour presentation. He became emotional in his opening statement pleading with the jury:
“You can destroy this man. You can destroy me,” he said. “Because we don’t have any money. You have money.”
Kosiah wandered off point frequently to the visible anger of Court President, the French version of a chief judge, Jean Marc Lavergne and appeared ready to make a political speech:
“If you really want to stop war in Gaza, killing black people there”.
Kosiah dismissed the panel of all white Swiss judges who adjudicated both his cases and spent hours laying out his case for why the witnesses in the trials of Kamara and himself were not reliable.
“Most of these people are Kissi. I am Mandingo,” he said of the different tribes. “Those are important issues that you need to know before you even go into the case.”
Kosiah focused his address to the nine jurors. (There were no jurors in Kosiah’s Swiss trial which was adjudicated by judges only).
“The reason is that I think Kundi (Kamara) has a slight advantage. Because I was convicted by three white judges. They have never been to Africa. They will never go there. So, the question is, ‘what is their cultural or tribal understanding of Africa? Of religion? History? Geography?’ But the jurors are not politicized. Given full information, with full knowledge, I am confident they will take the right decision.”
The judge read out a long list of the crimes for which Kosiah had been found guilty including dozens of murders of civilians, rapes and the use of child soldiers. Among his crimes were those that have featured in Kamara’s case, including the killing of the teacher, the mutilation of his body and forced labor to carry elements of the Lofa powerhouse to the Guinea border where Ulimo sold them. Kosiah rejected the convictions.
“Mr. President, you said a lot of things about what I did. There’s no body in this case. There’s no proof. Everything is based on the credibility of the complainants. So, it’s for the judge and the jury to find that they’re credible.”
Sabrina Delattre, lawyer for the civil parties, in front of the French prosecutors
Kosiah homed in on one of the key witnesses claiming that his testimony could not have been correct because Kosiah could not have been where he said he was at the same time as he was leading battles in other parts of the country. He rejected the idea that Kamara, his number two, could have made the orders that he is claimed to have made. Kosiah showed a current passport photo that he said proved that one of the people he is convicted of murdering was still alive.
Kosiah denied he was at the scene of multiple atrocities despite multiple witnesses in his trial and Kamara’s placing him there. Kamara himself had said Kosiah was in Foya at the time. Kosiah said Kamara’s memory was impaired.
Kosiah homed in on one of the key witnesses claiming that his testimony could not have been correct because Kosiah could not have been where he said he was at the same time as he was leading battles in other parts of the country. He rejected the idea that Kamara, his number two, could have made the orders that he is claimed to have made. Kosiah showed a current passport photo that he said proved that one of the people he is convicted of murdering was still alive.
Kosiah denied he was at the scene of multiple atrocities despite multiple witnesses in his trial and Kamara’s placing him there. Kamara himself had said Kosiah was in Foya at the time. Kosiah said Kamara’s memory was impaired.
Kosiah, center, in his 2021 trial in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. Credit: Leslie Lumeh/New Narratives
Kosiah’s long speech tested the patience of the judge who urged him to hurry up, and to focus on the subject at hand, multiple times. An irritated Kosiah shot back:
“Mr. President you are making a big mistake. If you don’t have the information you’re going to convict this man for nothing.”
At another point he said, “Mr. President, I know what I’m talking about. I lived this. You can’t change me!”
As he did in his appearance in Kamara’s first trial, and in his own hearings, Kosiah focused his anger on Alain Werner of Civitas Maxima, who brought the case against him in Switzerland and, with Hassan Bility of the Liberia-based Global Justice and Research Project, has been instrumental in gathering evidence used in 11 cases against Liberians, Sierra Leoneans and Europeans accused of atrocities in Liberia’s conflict.
Kosiah claimed, without evidence, that Civitas coached witnesses to lie to investigators in the United Kingdom’s case against Agnes Taylor, the former wife of convicted warlord Charles Taylor. Agnes Taylor had been charged with war crimes in the United Kingdom, including the murder of a man Kosiah claimed was still alive. Agnes’s case was withdrawn when a court ruled prosecutors had not proved a technical point essential to the case. She was not found innocent of the charges. Agnes then returned to Liberia. Charles is serving a 50-year sentence in a UK prison for his role in Sierra Leone’s war.
Gibril Massaquoi during the Sierra Leone war
Kosiah misrepresented the outcome of the appeal of a Finnish court in January in the case of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean accused of atrocities in Liberia on behalf of then-President Charles Taylor. Taylor’s National Patriotic Front for Liberia had been the mortal enemy of Kosiah’s Ulimo faction in 1993. Massaquoi was acquitted of charges against him by an appeals court in January 2023. Kosiah told the court that Massaquoi’s acquittal had changed everything for defendants in Europe, claiming it showed that Civitas and the witnesses lied.
“Massaquoi raped people, cut people into pieces. It’s almost the same accusations against me,” Kosiah claimed. “Now we know that was fabricated. Why can this court not take that into consideration? Alain Werner is a criminal.”
Kosiah also claimed, without evidence, that the United States officials were now “hanging their heads in shame” at having been “duped” by Werner and Bility. Michael McCarthy, the former United States ambassador to Liberia, and Beth Van Schaack, the US Global Ambassador for War Crimes, have been very public in their support for Bility and his work to date.
In fact, the Finnish appeal court found that the crimes for which Massaquoi was charged, had been committed but the court found prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Massaquoi had been responsible. The court did not find Massaquoi innocent, neither did it find his accusers had lied.
Kosiah also described Mohammed Jabbateh, known as Jungle Jabbah, who was convicted in 2018 of criminal immigration fraud by a US court for lying about his war crimes to immigration authorities, as a top leader of Ulimo. When asked about his conviction, Kosiah again mischaracterized the case. He told the jury the US prosecutors “could not get Jungle Jabbah” on war crimes despite taking 20 witnesses to testify in the case so they resorted to immigration fraud. In fact, US prosecutors could not prosecute Jabbateh for war crimes because in 2018 the US, unlike European countries, did not have crimes against humanity laws under which they could prosecute crimes committed in 1993.
Kamara, who is fasting during the day for Ramadan, sat quietly in his protective glass case throughout the testimony. On Tuesday he has asked a court artist, drawing images of people in the trial, not to capture his image. French law gives defendants the right to their own image. For that reason New Narratives is only using images of Kamara from the first trial.
The trial continues Friday with the testimonies of two more witnesses who will detailed Kamara’s crimes.
This is a collaboration with FrontPage Africa as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.