A Swiss court on Friday sentenced a West African rebel to 20 years in prison for rape, murder and cannibalism, which he committed during Liberia’s civil war.
The case was also Switzerland’s first war crimes tribunal in a civil court. It involved 46-year-old Alieu Kosiah who went under the nom de guerre “bluff boy” in the rebel faction United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) who fought against former President Charles Taylor’s army in the 1990s.
Kosiah faced 25 charges including one in which he was accused of eating slices of a man’s heart.
He was convicted of it and all but the other bills, documents from the Swiss federal court showed.
He was arrested in 2014 in Switzerland, where he had lived as a permanent resident. A Swiss law from 2011 allows prosecution for serious crimes committed anywhere, according to the principle of general jurisdiction.
A plaintiff in the case who testified that Kosiah ordered his brother’s murder urged other Liberians to come forward as witnesses and secure more convictions.
“If you set a good example, the other guys will be scared,” he said in a statement through the NGO Civitas Maxima, which represented him. He asked not to be mentioned in media reports for fear of reprisals.
Liberia has ignored pressure to prosecute crimes from its back-to-back wars between 1989-2003, in which thousands of child soldiers were bound by power problems exacerbated by ethnic rivalry. The West African nation is currently struggling with a worsening food crisis.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Friday’s sentencing a “landmark”.
“Switzerland’s efforts in this case should help mobilize a broader accountability in Liberia as this shows that these crimes can be prosecuted. I see this as an opportunity,” said the group’s Elise Keppler.
Kosiah ‘very disappointed’
Activists in the Liberian capital Monrovia celebrated the verdict. “This will act as a deterrent to others around the world. I believe that justice has gone its way,” said Dan Sayeh, a civil society campaigner.
Kosiah had denied all charges and told the court he was a minor when he was first recruited into the conflict.
His lawyer, Dmitry Gianoli, told Reuters in an email that Kosiah was “very disappointed” with the court’s decision, saying it had been subjected to media and political pressure. “Mr Alieu Kosiah will continue his fight for justice.”
Kosiah was cleared on Friday of attempted murder of a civilian, accessories to the murder of a civilian, an order to plunder and recruit a child soldier.
The court said that 20 years’ imprisonment was the maximum that was allowed under Swiss law.
“No mitigating circumstances were taken into account in the judgment. An expulsion from Switzerland was also ordered for a period of 15 years,” it said. Kosiah was also ordered to pay compensation to seven plaintiffs, it added.
A spokesman for the court later clarified that he would not be deported before his sentence was served. The approximately 6 1/2 years that Kosiah has already been imprisoned before the trial will be included in the verdict, the court documents show.
Liberia’s Charles Taylor gestures during his last speech as President on August 12, 2003. (REUTERS)
Charles Taylor was convicted of war crimes in 2012, but only for acts in neighboring Sierra Leone. His son, Chuckie, was convicted of torture in Liberia by a US court in 2009.
Football star George Weah is Liberia’s incumbent president.
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