Former Liberian rebel leader first convicted of war crimes
Ulimo fighters, of which Alieu Kosiah was a commander, on October 27, 1992. AFP - ALAIN BOMMENEL
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Former Liberian rebel leader Alieu Kosiah was sentenced on Friday for war crimes in Liberia.
The verdict was delivered in Switzerland, before the Federal Criminal Court.
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In the early 1990s, when Liberia was on fire, Alieu Kosiah commanded a militia within the Ulimo armed movement opposed to Charles Taylor's rebels.
He moved to Switzerland a few years later, where he was arrested in 2014.
At the end of a marathon procedure, slowed down by the Ebola epidemic and then by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Swiss criminal justice issued a historic conviction this Friday, by condemning the former Liberian rebel leader to 20 years in prison for war crimes.
Alieu Kosiah was convicted of 21 of the 25 charges, including ordering or participating in the killing of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers.
He was convicted of rape, using child soldiers, ordering looting and inflicting “
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
” on civilians.
Swiss justice took up the case by virtue of "universal jurisdiction", a principle allowing people suspected of international crimes to be tried, regardless of where they were committed.
This is what enabled Senegalese justice and the African Union to try former Chadian President Hissène Habré in particular.
"History"
Alieu Kosiah, who claims to be innocent, will no doubt appeal.
But for lawyer Alain Werner, from the NGO Civitas Maxima which supports Liberian victims, this conviction is a turning point.
“
For Liberia, this is completely historic.
Charles Taylor was convicted in Sierra Leone, his son in Miami for torture, but there had never been a conviction for war crimes
, ”he argues.
Between 1989 and 2003, the two Liberian civil wars claimed more than 250,000 lives.
No trial has taken place in Liberia to date.
In the meantime, the NGO Civitas Maxima is taking other cases to the courts of countries where former warlords are identified.
In Finland, in particular, and soon also in France.
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