MONROVIA – Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador-At-Large for Global Criminal Justice has warned that impunity for past and current crimes remains high in Liberia. Ambassador Schaack says this weakens the country’s peace. “Liberia faces many challenges when it comes to justice and accountability,” says Schaack in an open letter to Liberians seen by FPA/NN. “Not…
War Crimes Trial Reporting
Charles Taylor’s Ex-Bodyguard “Bull Dog” Dies
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Momoh Gebah, commonly known as “Bull Dog”, an ex-aide-de-camp to warlord turned President Charles Taylor, has died. Gebah died on Saturday of XX, according to the National Patriotic Party (NPP) of which he was a member. Gebah was considered one of Taylor’s most trusted security chiefs and was seen…
Convicted Liberian War Criminal Appeals Paris Guilty Verdict
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Lawyers for Kunti Kamara, a Liberian war criminal who was convicted by a French court last week for his role in the country’s first civil war, have appealed his landmark judgment. It is a decision that may see the entire case being re-litigated. Last week the Paris Appeal Court…
French Court Sentences Liberian Warlord to Life Imprisonment
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives PARIS, France—A French court has convicted and sentenced Liberian warlord Kunti Kamara to a life sentence for complicity in crimes against humanity, torture and barbarism following a dramatic three-week trial here in the French capital. Kamara listened keenly as the judge read the counts. He looked closely at the…
Prosecution Wants Accused Liberian Warlord Given Live Imprisonment, But Defense Pleads Innocence; Claims Unfair Trial
PARIS, France—Prosecutors in the war crimes trial of Kunti Kamara, an accused Liberian warlord have asked the French jury hearing his case to find him guilty of all the charges he’s accused of, but his defense claims he’s innocent and has not been accorded a fair trial. By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Mr. Kamara,…
Victims Detail Forced Labor Under Ulimo As Kamara Admits to Paris Trial he was the Only “Co Kundi’ in Lofa
By Anthony Stephens and Prue Clarke with New Narratives As he has done throughout the trial Kamara denied that he knew anything of child soldiers, torture, sex slaves, rape, cannibalism and forced labor in the county despite the testimony of dozens of Liberian and international witnesses in this trial and hearings of Liberia’s 2008 Truth…
“I would never eat human heart” Kamara Tells War Crimes Court as TRC Commissioner Washington Makes a Powerful Case for the Legitimacy of the French Trial
PARIS, France – The former Ulimo commander Kunti Kamara, on trial here for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Liberia’s civil wars, had his first chance to make a substantive response to the allegations made against him in the first five days of this trial. Under questioning from the judges, civilian lawyers and prosecution lawyers…
“No Doubt Whatsoever, That is Him” Victim Tells Paris War Crimes Court
By Prue Clarke PARIS, France – The trial of Kunti Kamara for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Paris took a dramatic turn late Friday as the presiding judge in the trial asked a witness if the man he had described committing multiple atrocities, including killing four members of the victim’s family, was in…
Kamara Defense Challenges Absence of Forensic Evidence; French Reveal a Second Liberian Case
By Prue Clarke with New Narratives PARIS, France – Day four of the war crimes trial of Kunti Kamara looked closely at the investigations in France and Liberia that produced evidence prosecutors are using in the case against the former commander of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia. Two Liberian leads in the…
Kamara Admits Falsifying Travel Documents To Escape Europe As Police Closed In; Role of the Mandingo Community in France Under Scrutiny
PARIS, France – It didn’t take long for prosecutors to catch Kunti Kamara in multiple traps in day two of his war crimes trial Tuesday. The former colonel with the United Liberation Movement of Liberia insisted repeatedly that he had not been trying to flee Europe when he was arrested in January 2020 carrying a…
Kunti K War Crimes Trial Begins In France
PARIS, France —The trial of Kunti Kamara, a former battlefront commander for the United Liberation Movement of Liberia, began Monday at the French Court of Appeals for crimes against humanity, torture and acts of barbarism allegedly committed in Liberia between 1993 and 1994. Known as “Kunti-K” among other war names, the 48-year-old is being prosecuted…
Moses Thomas found responsible in US court
It was one of the most shocking events of the Liberian civil war. In April 1900 troops with then-President Samuel Doe’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit shot and hacked to death 600 people including babies taking refuge in Monrovia’s St Peters Lutheran Church. Images of the carnage were broadcast around the world. The massacre kicked off a…
Key Accused War Criminal Massaquoi Ally, ‘Zizar Marzah’, Says Finnish War Crimes Court Got it Wrong
A key former ally of Gibril Massaquoi, the Revolutionary United Front commander, says a Finnish District Court got it wrong when it acquitted Massaquoi of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Liberia….
One Year Since President Weah Declared Rape a National Emergency Activists Say Nothing Has Changed
MONROVIA – It was a year ago that President George Weah declared rape a national emergency. His announcement came in response to a crime that shocked the nation: a fifteen-year-old boy had raped a three-year-old girl, using a razor blade to commit the crime. By Mae Azango with New Narratives That followed years of cries…
Defence Strikes Blows in Liberia War Crimes Trial
FINLAND — The defence team in the trial of Gibril Massaquoi, the former RUF commander accused of committing war crimes in Liberia, has had some wins in the concluding weeks of the trial in Tampere, Finland. Since it resumed in Finland, after three months hearing testimonies in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the trial has narrowed to…
Witnesses Tell Court Massaquoi Killed Family
By Joaquin Sendolo with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – The Finnish court hearing the war crimes case against former Revolutionary United Front commander Gibril Massaquoi heard from two witnesses on Wednesday who said they saw Massaquoi murder their relatives during the Liberian civil war. The witness, now 47, detailed the crimes he said he witnessed…
Finnish Court Visits Alleged Massaquoi War Crime Sites
VOINJAMA, Lofa County – The trials of alleged war criminals taking place in the US and Europe became very real for villagers in Lofa County last week as the judge in the war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi in Finland arrived with prosecutors and the defense lawyer to see firsthand the scenes of atrocities alleged to…
Prosecution Alleges Gibril Massaquoi Directed Witnesses in War Crimes Trial
TAMPERE, Finland – Prosecutors in the war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi alleged Friday that the defendant tried to influence witnesses in the case. State Prosecutor Tom Laitinen told presiding judge Juhani Paiho that a cleaner at the prison where Massaquoi was being held in pretrial detention found handwritten notes in the restroom of the…
Finland Begins Hearing of Sierra Leonean Accused of War Crimes in Liberia
TAMPERE, Finland – The trial of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean former rebel commander accused of committing war crimes in Liberia, began on Wednesday in the Finnish city of Tampere. By Saila Huusko, with New Narratives Massaquoi, 51, entered the Pirkanmaa District Court shortly after 10 am local time, wearing a gray pinstripe suit and a face…
Prosecutor Pushes Court to Convict, Jail and Sanction Kosiah
BELLINZONA, Switzerland – Alieu Kosiah should be convicted of all the war crimes charges he faces, jailed for a maximum 20 years and then barred from entering Switzerland for 15 years, prosecutors said on Monday in their final argument four days to the end of the historic trial. Chief prosecutor Andreas Müller told the Swiss…
Court Hears Kosiah’s Defense Against ‘Liars’ and ‘Manipulators’
BELLINZONA, Switzerland – War crimes suspect Alieu Kosiah delivered a forceful rebuke to six plaintiffs who brought the war crimes case against him here in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Monday. He slammed the plaintiffs and their lawyers for “staging their testimonies” and “lying on him”. Kosiah’s anger at being on trial here was focused…