Liberia

Special Court for Sierra Leone

21 May 2021 by Kelvin Lewis

Massaquoi: the battle of the alibi plays out in Sierra Leone At full speed over the last ten days, a Finnish Court has heard 18 witnesses in the trial of rebel Revolutionary United Front member Gibril Massaquoi, accused of committing war crimes in neighbouring Liberia, in a series of hearin [...]

Aaron Weah

In-Depth Interview

27 April 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Aaron Weah: “Liberians have been reminded that justice is still possible” JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Aaron Weah Civil society activist and scholar on transitional justice issues Aaron Weah is a leading expert on transitional justice in Liberia. He is the only Liberian scholar to have attended the [...]

Salle d'audience du procès Massaquoi (Liberia)

22 April 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Massaquoi: Please hide this trial from Liberians The trial of former Sierra Leonean rebel commander Gibril Massaquoi before a Finnish court concluded its hearings in Liberia on 7 April and is to resume on 28 April in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In Liberia, civil society had high exp [...]

Gibril (Gabriel) with the angel Gabriel in the background

13 April 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Massaquoi Trial: The appearance of Angel Gabriel Hassan Bility was the first to say that Gibril Massaquoi was known as “Angel Gabriel”. Up until 2018, he was the only one. His testimony was the basis for investigations that led to the trial of the former Sierra Leonean rebel com [...]

Massaquoi trial in Liberia

Special focus

12 April 2021 by JusticeInfo.net

The Massaquoi Affair: the Finnish model put to the test In February 2021, a Finnish court began the trial of Gibril Massaquoi, a former commander and spokesman for the Sierra Leonean rebellion, accused of crimes against humanity committed in Liberia twenty years ago. However, the Finni [...]

Welcome to Lofa

6 April 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Massaquoi trial: “Every living thing that drinks water can forget” Since 16 March, fifteen witnesses from the villages of Lofa (north-east) have come to Monrovia to testify in the trial of former Sierra Leonean rebel Gibril Massaquoi, before a Finnish court that was moved to Liberia. They were fo [...]

Peinture de la cour finlandaise au Liberia pour le procès Massaquoi

19 March 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Massaquoi trial: the date that can change everything The Finnish court trying Gibril Massaquoi in Liberia finished the first part of its hearings on March 16, devoted to crimes that the accused allegedly committed in Monrovia at the end of the civil war. Of the 21 witnesses heard, o [...]

Drawing of Alieu Kosiah during his trial in Switzerland

8 March 2021 by Antoine Harari

Judgment awaited in Alieu Kosiah war crimes trial The trial of former Liberian rebel fighter Alieu Kosiah ended on March 5 in Switzerland. Accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the early 1990s in Liberia, Kosiah denied being present at the time of the eve [...]

Massaquoi trial: Drawing of the Finnish prosecutors in Monrovia

5 March 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

The Massaquoi Trial: Double or quits before a Finnish court The first hearings in Gibril Massaquoi’s trial before a Finnish court temporarily relocated to Liberia have outlined the controversial shape of the case. The prosecution is counting on mass witness testimony, while the defence is [...]

Liberian flag on the wall of a house in a village in Liberia

Podcast

1 March 2021 by Asymmetrical Haircuts

Justice for Liberia is on the map at last It has been a very long wait for Liberians to begin to see some accountability on the many crimes committed during their two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. And the change of trend has come from outside the country. After a few [...]

Liberia-Finland_trial-court-off-road-convoy_@Thierry-Cruvellier

23 February 2021 by Thierry Cruvellier

Massaquoi trial: Finnish court goes to deepest Liberia Arriving in Liberia on February 15, Finnish judges, prosecutors, and lawyers spent their first week visiting sites where Gibril Massaquoi, a former rebel commander from Sierra Leone, allegedly committed crimes against humanity. Th [...]

Dessin d'un avocat des victimes dans le procès Kosiah, en Suisse. © Leslie Lumeh

22 February 2021 by Antoine Harari

In Swiss trial, Liberian victims tell chilling tales of Alieu Kosiah The trial of Alieu Kosiah, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, resumed on February 15 in Switzerland. Six of the seven plaintiffs took the stand to give chilling accounts of crimes they say were committed by the for [...]

10 December 2020 by Antoine Harari

Kosiah: “You can jail me for a thousand years, I fear no one!” The long-awaited trial of former Liberian warlord Alieu Kosiah began this week in the southern Swiss town of Bellinzona with questioning of the accused. According to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, where he has [...]

3 December 2020 by Antoine Harari

Trial of Liberian Alieu Kosiah opens in Switzerland Alieu Kosiah, a former Liberian warlord, is the first person to be tried in Switzerland for war crimes before a civil court. His trial has been repeatedly postponed. It opens on 3 December in Bellinzona in a tense atmosphere, afte [...]

9 June 2020 by Julia Crawford

Why Liberia’s TRC archives stay in a US university July 1 will mark eleven years since Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its report. But not only have its main recommendations not been implemented, the Commission’s archives remain at the Georgia Institute of [...]

2 April 2020 by Gaëlle Ponselet

Liberia war crimes: Belgian investigators drag feet on Martina Johnson The pace of Belgian investigations into the role of alleged rebel commander Martina Johnson during the Liberian civil war is trying the patience of the defence and civil parties. Six years after the case was opened, investigations [...]

3 October 2019 by Ephrem Rugiririza

Does the Liberian president really want a war crimes court? Under pressure to set up a special court to try crimes committed in the civil wars that ended 16 years ago, Liberian President George Weah has broken his silence on the issue. But his intentions are still in doubt.

11 September 2018 by Thierry Cruvellier

Paris arrest a new step to justice for Liberian war crimes 2018 is a good year for the activists who have vowed they will not let the crimes committed in Liberia’s wars of the 1990s go unpunished. After two landmark judgments in the United States, they have now got another arrest in Paris [...]

19 October 2017 by Julia Crawford, JusticeInfo.net

Liberian found guilty of war crimes-linked charges in “historic” US case A court in Philadelphia on Wednesday found Mohammed Jabbateh (“Jungle Jabbah”) guilty of charges related to atrocities committed during the first Liberian civil war (1989-96). His two-week trial was the first time that Liberian wa [...]