Liberia war crimes hearing starts in Finnish appeals court

On Tuesday a Finnish court of appeal started hearing an international war crime case in which a Sierra Leonean man is charged with murders, rapes and other atrocities during the Liberian civil war between 1999 and 2003, the court said.

Prosecutors believe the Gibril Massaquoi, who denies wrongdoing, murdered, raped and mutilated civilians while he was in a high position in the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

The RUF was an insurgent group that fought in Sierra Leone and in Liberia for its former president Charles Taylor.

In 2022 Massaquoi, who has lived in Finland for many years, was acquitted of all charges by a lower Finnish court. It said a significant doubt remained over his participation in the suspected acts due to witnesses changing their testimonies.

Prosecutors took the case to the Turku court of appeal, whose members will travel to Liberia and Sierra Leone to again hear witnesses in the coming months, the court said.

Liberia endured conflicts that killed about 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003  when Taylor, who seized power in a coup that sparked the rebellion, stepped down.

Thousands of people were mutilated and raped in fighting that involved drugged fighters and child soldiers conscripted by warlords.

Taylor was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for war crimes by a UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague in 2013.

In November last year, a French court sentenced former Liberian rebel commander Kunti Kamara to life in prison for atrocities committed during the first Liberian civil war.

Massaquoi’s case is the second international war crime case Finland is dealing with after a former Rwandan pastor Francois Bazaramba was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for participating in genocide in his country in 1994.

The Turku court expects to conclude the case in June, it said.

Reuters