MONROVIA – Witness tampering has been the focus of the first hearings in the appeal of the acquittal of Gibril Massaquoi, the former commander with the Revolutionary United Front, accused by Finnish prosecutors of committing atrocities in Liberia dur
MONROVIA – A key former ally of Gibril Massaquoi, the Revolutionary United Front commander, says a Finnish District Court got it wrong when it acquitted Massaquoi of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Liberia.FPA
Lansana Gberie, a renowned expert on the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia, provides an exclusive analysis of the trial of Gibril Massaquoi before a Finnish court, and how it led to a full acquittal on April 29. He worries about the consequences of a trial that, he says, was “misguided”. And he has a suggestion to Massaquoi if he is to receive financial compensation for the time he spent in prison.
Massaquoi trial: “Every living thing that drinks water can forget”
6 April 2021By Thierry Cruvellier, special envoy in Liberia
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 followed by fourteen Liberian veterans of the second civil war between 1999 and 2003. All but one of them directly accused the former Sierra Leonean commander. But is this enough?
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