Swiss court upholds ruling against former Liberian warlord

Monrovia, Liberia, July 30, 2003. Liberia's two civil wars (1989-2003) involved serious crimes on all sides. Keystone / Nic Bothma

A Swiss court has confirmed the 20-year prison sentence handed down in 2021 to a Liberian rebel commander convicted of 22 counts of war crimes, including rape, murder and an act of cannibalism. Alieu Kosiah was also convicted of crimes against humanity committed during Liberia’s first civil war in the 1990s.

Alieu Kosiah, 48, a former rebel commander who fought with the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) against former President Charles Taylor’s army between 1993-1995, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2021 in Switzerland’s first-ever war crimes trial.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland later widened the indictment to include crimes against humanity – the first time such charges had been brought before a Swiss court.

Judges at the Higher Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in southern Switzerland on Thursday rejected the appeal by Kosiah and upheld the guilty verdict for war crimes; it also retained the crimes against humanity charge. The Liberian had denied the accusations and had requested a full acquittal.

Conviction on all but four charges

Swiss prosecutors opened a case against Kosiah in August 2014, following complaints filed by seven victims. A 2011 Swiss law allows prosecution for serious crimes committed anywhere, under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Identified by the Geneva-based Civitas Maxima organisation, the Liberian was arrested in Bern in November 2014, where he had been living as a permanent resident. He has been detained since then.

During the war crimes trial in 2021, Kosiah faced 25 charges, including killings of civilians, rape, recruiting a child soldier, and an act of cannibalism.

Court documents showed Kosiah was convicted on all but four of the charges, with acquittals for attempted murder of a civilian, accessory to the murder of a civilian, an order to loot and recruitment of a child soldier.

He had denied all the charges. His defence team had argued that he was a minor when first recruited in the conflict and was not present when the crimes were committed.

Around 300,000 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, in conflicts that raged in Liberia between 1989-1996 and 1999-2003.