Liberian rebel leader Kunti Kamara sentenced to life imprisonment

Audience sketch made on October 10, 2022, showing former commander Ulimo Kunti Kamara, at the Paris Court of Assizes.

AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ

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Tried in Paris for the abuses committed during the civil war in Liberia, the former rebel leader of the Ulimo group, Kunti Kamara was declared this Wednesday, November 2 guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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After three weeks of immersion in the civil war in Liberia and its atrocities, the Paris Assize Court delivered its decision on Wednesday concerning the former rebel commander Kunti Kamara, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

For his last words in court, the accused, bald head and thick mustache, again disputed the facts on Wednesday morning.

" 

," said Kunti Kamara, before the court retired to deliberate and answer the 19 questions before it.

Throughout this unprecedented trial, plaintiffs and witnesses from Liberia rocked the court in the horror of a conflict with complex roots, which decimated the small West African country and opened a still gaping wound. thirty years later.

" 

 ," said Liberian journalist and activist John Stewart.

At the time of Liberia's first of two civil wars (1989-1997), Kunti Kamara was part of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy (Ulimo), which had taken over the northwest of the country to rein in the rival militia of the dreaded Charles Taylor.

It is in this region of Lofa that "CO Kundi" - for "commanding officer" - would have taken part in abuses against civilians which have earned him a trial in Paris since October 10, in the name of universal jurisdiction exercised by France for the most serious crimes.

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