Switzerland jails Liberian Alieu Kosiah for murder, rape
A court in Switzerland on Friday jailed a Liberian Alieu Kosiah for 20 years for war crimes.
A court in Switzerland on Friday sentenced a Liberian to 20 years in prison for war crimes. Alieu Kosiah, a former rebel commander, became the first to be convicted over the country's civil wars.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court found Kosiah guilty of 21 out of the 25 charges of murder and rape. He was accused of ordering the killing of 13 civilians and two unarmed soldiers, murdering four civilians, raping a civilian, ordering looting, and using a child soldiers in armed hostilities.
Kosiah was tried under the principle of universal justice, which Switzerland subscribes to. It allows the European country to try persons accused of high-profile crimes elsewhere.
He becomes the first Liberian to be tried by a Swiss civilian court for war crimes.
The 46-year-old Liberian was a commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy, a rebel faction headed by former warlord Alhaji Kromah.
Cannibalism
He was notorious for acts of cannibalism, among other crimes during the war. He relocated to Switzerland as debate over efforts to prosecute suspected war criminals intensified in Liberia.
Kosiah, who was first detained by Swiss authorities in 2014, has spent six years in detention, which the court said counts as part of his sentence.
He was detained after a civil rights group, Civitas Maxima, presented the Swiss Attorney General with evidence of his involvement in war crimes, including the deliberate killing of civilians, sexual violence, abuse of corpses and acts of cannibalism.
About 250,000 people were killed in Liberia in two separate wars between 1989 and 2003.
The first war broke out in 1989 when Charles Taylor led a rebel group to topple former President Samuel Doe. That first phase of the war ended in 1997 when Taylor took control of most parts of the country and conducted elections which he won.
And in 1999, war erupted when other rebel groups emerged to overthrow Taylor. He was forced to leave Liberia in the face of advancing rebel groups in 2003, through a peace deal brokered by Nigeria.
He was subsequently arrested in Nigeria where he lived in exile and tried by a UN-backed court for his role in the Sierra Leone war.
The Liberian government has been reluctant to create war crimes courts to try people accused of taking part in atrocities during the West African country’s wars.
This is despite the recommendation of a post-war truth commission, which identified people who could be prosecuted. Many of those named are powerful figures in government, including Prince Johnson, who killed President Doe. Johnson, besides being an elected senator, is an ally of current President George Weah.
Try suspects
Several foreign countries have resolved to try suspects. Notable among them include Taylor, who is serving a 50-year jail term although for crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Another ex-warlord, Mohammed "Jungle Jabbah" Jabateh, is serving a 30-year jail term in the US where he was tried for lying about his past as a leader of an armed group that carried out multiple murders.
In 2019 a UK court dismissed a case against an ex-wife of Charles Taylor, Agnes Taylor, accused of involvement in the torture of a child and conspiring to use rape to torture women during the Liberia war in the 1990s.
And currently, a Sierra Leonean Gibril Massaquoi is on trial in Finland for alleged crimes committed in Liberia.
