Justice in foreign courts
Trials for International Crimes under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction
As Liberians continue to wait for justice at home over 20 years after the end of the conflict, the search for justice has continued further afield. Several criminal trials are being pursued in foreign courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows States to try offenders for serious crimes under international law, even in the absence of a personal or territorial link to the offence.
The Swiss NGO Civitas Maxima and its Liberian partner, the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), have been at the forefront of accountability efforts in foreign jurisdictions for crimes committed in Liberia during the civil war. They conducted investigations and collected witness statements from Liberian victims, which they then used to build cases against suspected perpetrators in foreign courts. As a result, criminal complaints for war crimes and crimes against humanity have been launched against suspects in several European countries, including France, Belgium, Finland and Switzerland.
In June 2021, a Swiss Court confirmed the first conviction for war crimes against a Liberian defendant and Swiss resident, Alieu Kosiah, sentencing him to 20 years in prison. The case, initiated following efforts by Civitas Maxima and GJRP, concerned 25 counts of war crimes, including rape, murder, looting and recruitment of child soldiers, committed in Lofa County Liberia between 1993 and 1996 while Kosiah was an ULIMO commander. The sentence was upheld by a Swiss appeals court in June 2023. In addition to upholding the war crimes conviction, the appeals court also found Kosiah guilty of crimes against humanity. Detained since November 2014, Kosiah will be eligible for conditional release for good behavior in 2028 at the earliest, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
In France, Kunti Kamara, also a former ULIMO commander, was arrested in the Paris region in 2018 following a complaint filed by Civitas Maxima and GJRP, after his name came up in the Alieu Kosiah trial. The prosecution initially sought a life sentence, citing the egregious brutality of the crimes, including rape, sexual slavery, and other acts of extreme violence. In March 2024, Kamara was finally sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Paris Assize Court for “acts of barbarism and complicity in crimes against humanity” committed between 1993 and 1997 during Liberia’s first civil war.
Nevertheless, some cases were not that successful. In June 2017, Agnes Reeves Taylor, former wife of Charles Taylor, was arrested in the UK and charged with torture and conspiracy to commit torture for her alleged role in atrocities committed by the NPFL during the first civil war. Although the UK Supreme Court ruled, in a landmark decision, that members of non-state armed groups could be prosecuted for torture under UK law, the Central Criminal Court ultimately dismissed the charges against her in December 2019, finding insufficient evidence that the NPFL had governmental control over the territories where the alleged crimes occurred, as required under the applicable legal standard..
In Finland, proceedings against former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) Commander Gibril Massaquoi for alleged war crimes committed during the second Liberian civil war, initiated in 2018, ultimately culminated in an acquittal. Massaquoi was granted immunity for his cooperation in the case against members of the former rebel group, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and thereafter received asylum in Finland. This immunity however did not cover crimes committed in Liberia. Massaquoi was thus arrested in 2020, following efforts by Civitas Maxima and GJRP, on charges of war crimes including murder, rape and aggravated violations of human rights allegedly committed in Liberia in the early 2000s. His trial began on 1 February 2021 in Finland with part of the hearing being held in Liberia. The Massaquoi case broke new ground by having the court visit the locations where the crimes were alleged to have been committed and providing an opportunity for Liberians to “see justice being done”. However, the investigation was tainted by many irregularities, including missteps by the prosecution, shoddy investigation practices, questionable witness testimony and historical inaccuracies. From the outset, experts on the Liberian conflict expressed serious doubts that Massaquoi had even been present in Liberia at the time the crimes were allegedly committed.
In April 2022, the Finnish Court acquitted him, a decision confirmed by the Appeals Court in January 2024. Given the irregularities surrounding the proceedings, this decision was all but expected. Although the Courts found that the crimes described in the charges, including murders, sexual violence, forced labour, ill-treatment of corpses, and torture, were indeed committed in Lofa County (2001), Klay (2002), and Monrovia (2003), both the trial court and the Court of Appeal concluded that it was not proven that Mr. Massaquoi was responsible for these crimes. The judges found witness identifications unreliable and determined that evidence placed Massaquoi outside Liberia at the relevant times, making his involvement in the crimes unlikely. Massaquoi has since filed a claim for compensation for around 815,000 euros for his detention and has sued GJRP and Civitas Maxima in Liberian Courts for malicious prosecution and wrongful actions.
Cases are also pending against other suspects, including Martina Johnson, former frontline commander of the NPFL who faces war crimes and crimes against humanity charges in Belgium for acts committed during ‘Operation Octopus’ in 1992. After an 11-year investigation, Belgium finally closed the investigation in 2025 and presented the evidence to the Ghent Court of First Instance, which found sufficient grounds to proceed to trial. The federal prosecutor requested her referral to the Ghent Assize Court and sought her arrest to prevent flight, but the arrest request was denied. The case now awaits a final decision from the indictment division of the Court of Appeal on whether it will be sent to trial.
There have also been successful cases against Liberian defendants in the USA, such as the conviction in 2008 of Chuckie Taylor, son of Charles Taylor, for committing torture and related acts while he was the head of the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia. He was sentenced to 75 years imprisonment in January 2009 for his crimes.
Several recent cases in the US also illustrate how immigration fraud can serve as an alternative avenue to accountability. Under US law, individuals who have caused harm to others based on their race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, membership in a political group, or political opinion are barred from obtaining lawful residence in the country. This is called the “persecutor bar”. Lying or concealing information for immigration purposes is considered a criminal offense under US law.
In March 2012, George Boley, a former junior minister in Tolbert’s government, who had been active during Liberia’s civil war, was deported after his immigration application was found inadmissible on grounds of recruitment and use of child soldiers, a violation of the U.S. Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008, and for the commission of extrajudicial killings in Liberia in the 1990s. Following his deportation, Boley went on to play an active role in Liberian politics, becoming a leader of the Liberian Peace Council, a rebel group which participated in the Liberian civil war, and in 2017, winning the senate seat for Grand Gedeh county.
Former ULIMO Commander Mohammed Jabbateh and former NPFL-CRC leader Thomas Wowieyu were also convicted of immigration fraud after omitting to mention their roles in the Liberian civil war. Jabbateh was sentenced in April 2018 to 30 years in prison, after a jury convicted him in October 2017. Woewiyu was convicted in July 2018 but died in April 2020 before he could be sentenced. His trial marked the first time a former minister from the First Liberian Civil War faced justice and the first judicial examination of the atrocities committed by the NPFL, the most violent rebel faction active during the First Liberian Civil War.
In January 2025, Laye Sekou Camara, also known as “General K1”, pleaded guilty to four counts of immigration fraud before a US District Court in Philadelphia and was sentenced in September to 57 months in prison. He was accused of participating in numerous atrocities during Liberia’s second civil war, with nine witnesses testifying to his brutality and forced recruitment of civilians into LURD. The judge found survivor testimonies highly credible and concluded that Camara had concealed acts of serious violence from US immigration authorities. Although Camara was not charged with war crimes, the court examined substantial evidence of the atrocities committed during Liberia’s second civil war in assessing his immigration fraud. For many victims, this judicial examination, combined with the conviction, represents a meaningful, if indirect, form of justice.
