PARIS – Rights teams on Thursday lauded the conviction in Paris of former Liberian insurgent commander Kunti Kamara, who was sentenced to life in jail for atrocities dedicated through the West African nation’s first civil warfare.
Kamara was discovered responsible on Wednesday of perpetrating torture and “barbaric acts” in 1993, when he was a part of a insurgent group generally known as the United Liberation Motion of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) lively through the battle.
One in every of his legal professionals, Maryline Secci, informed Reuters in an e mail on Thursday that she would attraction the sentence.
Kamara has maintained his innocence.
The Paris Prison Courtroom that delivered its judgement additionally accused him of complicity in crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated in 1994, the Paris anti-terrorism prosecution workplace stated.
Liberia endured conflicts that killed round 250,000 individuals between 1989 and 2003, when ex-president Charles Taylor, who seized energy in a coup that sparked the rise up, stepped down.
Hundreds of individuals have been mutilated and raped in preventing that concerned drugged fighters and baby troopers conscripted by warlords.
A fee was arrange in 2006 to probe crimes dedicated through the warfare, however critics say its findings have been largely not carried out.
Convictions have been uncommon and all prosecutions for critical crimes have taken place outdoors Liberia, rights teams say.
Kamara was arrested in 2018 after an NGO introduced his case to the eye of French authorities. His trial was the primary in France involving grave crimes dedicated overseas that aren't linked to the Rwandan genocide.
It was potential as a result of France recognises common jurisdiction over sure critical crimes, permitting for prosecution no matter the place or by whom the act was dedicated.
“The French courtroom’s verdict is a ray of hope that justice is feasible for the victims in Liberia,” affiliate worldwide justice director at Human Rights Watch, Elise Keppler, stated in an announcement.
In the course of the four-week trial, witnesses described killings, rapes, beatings and torture by members of ULIMO, which fought in opposition to Taylor’s military.
One other ULIMO member, Alieu Kosiah, was sentenced to twenty years in jail in Switzerland final yr, whereas Taylor was sentenced for warfare crimes in 2012, however just for acts in neighbouring Sierra Leone. His son, Chuckie, was sentenced for torture in Liberia by a U.S. courtroom in 2009.
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