Finnish appeals court begins Liberia war crime hearing

Prosecutors consider the suspect who now lives in Finland, dedicated crimes in opposition to humanity in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Gibril Massaquoi of Sierra Leone attends a listening to of a global conflict crime case in opposition to him wherein he's charged of crimes dedicated through the Liberian civil conflict between 1999 and 2003, in Turku, Finland, January 10, 2023 [Lehtikuva/Anni Savolainen/via Reuters]

A Finnish court docket of enchantment has begun listening to a global conflict crime case wherein a Sierra Leonean man is charged with murders, rapes and different atrocities through the Liberian civil conflict between 1999 and 2003.

The session started on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued the 53-year-old suspect Gibril Massaquoi – who has denied any wrongdoing – murdered, raped and mutilated civilians as a high official of the Revolutionary United Entrance.

The RUF was a militia that fought in Sierra Leone, but in addition in Liberia for its ex-president Charles Taylor.

Final yr, Massaquoi, who has lived in Finland for a few years, was acquitted of all fees by a decrease Finnish court docket. It mentioned a major doubt remained about his participation within the suspected acts attributable to witnesses altering their testimonies.

However the prosecutors took the case to the court docket of enchantment in Turku, whose members will journey to Liberia and Sierra Leone to listen to witnesses once more within the coming months, the court docket mentioned.

Liberia endured conflicts that killed roughly 250,000 individuals between 1989 and 2003, when Taylor, who seized energy in a coup that sparked the revolt, stepped down.

Hundreds of individuals have been mutilated and raped in preventing that concerned drugged fighters and baby troopers conscripted by strongmen.

Taylor was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in jail for conflict crimes by a United Nations-backed Particular Courtroom for Sierra Leone in The Hague in 2013.

In November, a French court docket sentenced former Liberian insurgent commander Kunti Kamara to life in jail for atrocities dedicated through the first Liberian civil conflict.

Massaquoi’s case is the second worldwide conflict crime case Finland is coping with, after a former Rwandan pastor, Francois Bazaramba, was sentenced to life in jail in 2012 for taking part in genocide in his native nation in 1994.

The Turku court docket expects to conclude the case in June, it mentioned.