Swiss Supreme Court confirms 20-year sentence for Liberian war crimes convict Kosiah
Switzerland's highest court has upheld the 20-year prison term for former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah, while acquitting him of crimes against humanity.
Swiss court finalises 20-year war crimes sentence for Liberian ex-rebel leader
Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court has upheld the 20-year prison sentence handed to former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah, though it acquitted him of a separate charge of crimes against humanity, aljazeera.com reports.
The verdict, dated 28 September, was published on Friday. The court rejected an appeal filed by Kosiah, now 51, who had challenged his conviction for violations of the laws of war committed between 1993 and 1995 during the first Liberian civil war.
"However, the court has acquitted the individual of the charge of crimes against humanity, based on a strict application of the principle of non-retroactivity," the court said in a statement.
The offence of crimes against humanity was introduced into Swiss law in 2011 and could not, the court ruled, be applied retroactively to acts committed before that date. Kosiah's conviction for violating the law of war, along with the maximum 20-year custodial sentence, was confirmed in full.
The case dates to 2021, when Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court found Kosiah guilty of multiple atrocities carried out during the first of Liberia's back-to-back civil wars, in which approximately 250,000 people died between 1989 and 2003. As commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy rebel group, he was found to have ordered or participated in the killing of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers. He was also convicted of rape, deployment of a child soldier, looting, and the cruel and humiliating treatment of civilians, including the mishandling of corpses.
In 2023, the court's appeals chamber upheld the 20-year sentence for war crimes and, for the first time in Swiss legal history, additionally ruled that Kosiah was guilty of crimes against humanity. Friday's supreme court ruling reversed that second finding.
Swiss organisation Civitas Maxima, which works to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice, described the outcome as a landmark. "The decision makes final the first war crimes conviction ever handed down by a Swiss civilian court, and the first conviction anywhere of a Liberian for war crimes committed during the country's civil wars," it said in a statement.
Switzerland recognises the principle of universal jurisdiction, which permits prosecution of individuals suspected of international crimes regardless of where those crimes occurred. Kosiah settled in Switzerland in the late 1990s and was arrested in 2014.
Civitas Maxima director Alain Werner, who represents victims in the case, welcomed the confirmation of the sentence but expressed disappointment at the acquittal on the humanity charge. "Today the survivors of Alieu Kosiah's crimes have final justice," he said. "We are, however, deeply disappointed by the acquittal on crimes against humanity. What happened in Lofa between 1993 and 1995 is the very definition of a crime against humanity."
Crimes against humanity, like war crimes, cover atrocities including murder, torture and rape, but are distinguished by their widespread or systematic character rather than isolated incidents.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)