ex-Liberian insurgent Kunti Kamara sentenced on enchantment to 30 years in jail | EUROtoday

Published on : 03/27/2024 – 8:11 p.m.Modified : 03/27/2024 – 9:22 p.m.

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The Paris Assize Court sentenced, Wednesday March 27, to thirty years of felony imprisonment the previous insurgent commander Kunti Kamara, tried on enchantment for acts of barbarism and complicity in crimes in opposition to humanity through the first civil struggle in Liberia (1989-1997).

Kunti Kamara was sentenced to life in jail at first occasion on the finish of 2022 throughout an unprecedented trial which was held below the “universal jurisdiction” exercised by France, below sure circumstances, to evaluate essentially the most critical crimes dedicated outdoors its soil.

After three weeks of hearings, the 49-year-old accused was discovered responsible of a collection of “inhumane acts of torture and barbarity” in opposition to civilians in 1993-1994, together with the ordeal inflicted on a instructor from whom he allegedly ate the center, the killing of a girl described as a “witch” and compelled marches imposed on the inhabitants.

According to the choice rendered after greater than eight hours of deliberation, this former commander of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy (Ulimo) was additionally discovered responsible of getting facilitated crimes in opposition to humanity by way of his indifference to the repeated rapes dedicated on two teenage women who turned sex slaves for troopers below his authority in 1994.

The courtroom didn’t comply with the requests of the general public prosecutor, who had requested life imprisonment on Monday for acts of “exceptional seriousness for which Kunti Kamara is responsible”. The legal professional common burdened that the accused exercised “power of command” and that he had proven “no repentance”.

She insisted on the necessity to “fight against impunity regardless of borders” and requested the jurors to ship “a message to torturers around the world (…): France is not the last refuge of criminals against humanity.”

When the judgment was introduced, the accused, a small determine huddled in a black down jacket, remained emotionless.

“Commanding Officer Kundi”

Kunti Kamara, who had obtained political asylum within the Netherlands after mendacity about his previous, was arrested in September 2018 in Bobigny after a grievance from the NGO Civitas Maxima, which fights in opposition to impunity. His identify emerged within the mid-2010s as a part of proceedings initiated in Switzerland in opposition to one other Ulimo govt, Alieu Kosiah, who was sentenced in Geneva in 2021 to twenty years in jail within the very first trial of Liberian struggle crimes.

Read additionallyThe conviction of warlord Alieu Kosiah, a double victory for lawyer Alain Werner

In Paris throughout his enchantment trial, Kunti Kamara as soon as once more proclaimed his innocence.

Several victims and witnesses from Liberia have quite the opposite licensed that he was certainly the “CO Kundi”, for “commanding officer”, who contributed to the reign of terror within the north of the nation which fell into the palms of Ulimo firstly. of the Nineties, notably Lofa County.

His legal professionals, M^are Marilyne Secci and Renaud Gannat, pleaded for his acquittal by attacking the “indigence” of the investigation and “the supremacy that we want to give to the testimonies, thirty years later” in “the absence of material proof concrete”.

Chilling tales have been heard through the trial: human our bodies transported in wheelbarrows, supplications, rape via a bayonet dipped in salt.

The crimes of this bloody battle, which left a complete of 250,000 lifeless, have by no means been judged in Liberia the place former insurgent leaders now occupy excessive positions within the state equipment.

During his inauguration speech in late January, new President Joseph Boakai mentioned his authorities would research the potential for opening a struggle crimes tribunal.

With AFP