Former Liberian rebel leader Alieu Kosiah was convicted on Friday of war crimes in Liberia. Leverdict was handed down in Switzerland before the Federal Criminal Court.
In the early 1990s, when Liberia was on fire, Alieu Kosiah commanded a militia in the armed movement Ulimo against Charles Taylor’s rebels. He moved to Switzerland a few years later, where he was arrested in 2014.
At the end of a marathon, slowed down by the Ebola epidemic and then by the Covid-19 pandemic, Swiss criminal court handed down a historic verdict on Friday and sentenced 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 murder of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers. He was convicted of rape, using child soldiers, ordering looting and inflicting “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” against civilians.
Swiss justice took up the case under “universal jurisdiction”, a principle that allows people suspected of international crimes to be tried, no matter where they are committed. Senegalese justice and the African Union to try former Chadian president Hissène Habré.
“History”
Alieu Kosiah, who claims innocence, will no doubt appeal. But for lawyer Alain Werner from NGO Civitas Maxima, who 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, of torture, but there had never been a conviction for war crimes,” he argued.
Between 1989 and 2003, the two Liberian civil wars claimed more than 250,000 lives. To date, no trial has taken place in Liberia; meanwhile, NGO Civitas Maxima takes other cases to court in countries where former warlords are identified. Especially in Finland and soon also in France.
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