KAMATAHUN, Lofa County – A Finnish court upholds war crimes charges Gabriel Massaquoiformer commander of the Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front, has returned to Liberia for the third time.
On Tuesday, the court will begin hearings in Finnish prosecutors’ appeal of Massaquoi’s acquittal last year by a lower court.
In April, the District Court in the city of Tampere found that prosecutors did not prove Massaquoi’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and acquitted him of all charges, including murder and aggravated rape. In its 850-page verdict, the court said there was “doubt” that Massaquoi, now 53, had committed the crime.
The court also said there were inconsistencies in the testimony of witnesses, an issue at the heart of proceedings in the marathon trial that lasted 15 months. The prosecutor rejected the verdict and the appeal was granted by the Turku Court of Appeal.
“The hearing in the appeals court is an opportunity to try to overturn the verdict from the district,” said Tom Laitinen, a prosecutor in the court. “We’ll do our best and see where it goes.”
The appeal looked further into the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses.
Laitinen admitted he had a difficult task to convince the three-judge panel hearing the case.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Laitinen said in a WhatsApp message. “It doesn’t frustrate us to hear more witnesses. This is an opportunity for us to do a better job. He was cautious in his hopes for the case. “The burden is the same as before, but it’s always a challenge to convince a higher court that a lower court has been wrong.”
Kimmo Vanne, the presiding judge of the Turku Court of Appeal hearing the case, said proceedings would be open to the public, including allowing journalists to take pictures in the courtroom, except for protected witnesses who include rape victims.
Musa Dean, Liberia’s Minister of Justice, has not responded to a request for comment on the matter. The original trial held a multi-month hearing in Liberia in 2021, making it the first trial related to the Liberian civil war to take place on Liberian soil.
There is speculation at the time that the Liberian government, which has blocked efforts to establish a war crimes court, will reduce coverage of the trial for fear of bringing attention to inaction in wartime justice. But the trial continued without apparent government intervention and journalists were given full access to the hearing.
As in the two previous occasions when the court came to Liberia and then to Sierra Leone, Massaquoi did not attend the hearing. Unlike last time he was no longer held back. He will follow up with a video link from the Pirkanmaa district court in Tampere, according to Kaarle Gummerus, Massaquoi’s lead lawyer.
The delegation traveled in convoy from Monrovia to Lofa on a long and rocky road for an on-site inspection.
Residents in Kortuhun, Lofa witnessed the inspection, as well as those in Kamatahun.
As in the first trial, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and Finnish security personnel traveled hours separately over the weekend to Kamatahun and Kortuhun in Lofa County and Waterside in Monrovia on rocky dirt roads and in the hot sun to see where the crime took place Massaquoi. alleged to have happened.
Kortuhun is close to Liberia’s border with Sierra Leone, from where prosecutors say Massaquoi came to commit crimes, including locking civilians in buildings and burning them alive.
He said he committed the crime when RUF troops supported Charles Taylor’s forces in the fight against the rebels of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. Taylor was president of Liberia at the time.
Prosecutors also claim that Massaquoi, a one-time spokesman for the RUF, sneaked out of the “safe house” of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone to come to Liberia to commit alleged crimes.
Massaquoi is an informant for the court and is said to be key in the conviction of the former RUF commander and Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence in the UK for aiding and abetting rebels in the Sierra Leonean civil war.
Massaquoi’s lawyer did not deny he was in Liberia but said he left Liberia for Sierra Leone after hearing that Taylor allegedly planned to kill him. Massaquoi and his family moved to Finland in 2008 in a deal with the Special Court that did not grant them immunity from prosecution for crimes in Liberia.
He was arrested in March 2020 after Civitas Maxima, a Swiss-based justice activist, and the Global Justice and Research Project, a Liberian partner, showed what they said was evidence of crimes committed in Liberia.
Massaquoi’s lawyers believe they have what it takes legally to convince a higher court to uphold the lower court’s decision.
“We are confident and ready to try,” said Kaarle Gummerus, in a WhatsApp message to New Narratives. “We have some new witnesses in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Europe and also some new documentary evidence,” Gummerus said. “We are not frustrated. We are alert.”
Defense lawyers, Paula Sallinen and Kaarle Gummerus were present during the on-site examination in Lofa and at Waterside in Monrovia.
READ ALSO: Finnish court acquits Massaquoi of war crimes charges
The district court controversially ordered Massaquoi’s release from pre-trial detention for more than two months before releasing him – to the dismay of human rights activists. The defense and the prosecution did not provide further details about the new witnesses in the appeal process to support their arguments.
“There may also be new witnesses for us,” Laitinen said. “But I’m not sure.”
New Narrative has gathered that Joseph “Zizar Marzah” could be one of the new witnesses for the prosecution. Marzah, who refused to testify in the first trial, was a key commander under Taylor. He told NN in an exclusive interview that Massaquoi fought alongside him in Liberia and the district court erred by acquitting him.
During the appeal process in Finland, the defense sought to ignore Marzah’s evidence. Paula Sallinen, the defense lawyer, accused Marzah of mass killings in Lofa against members of the Gbandi tribe. Sallinen also accused Liberian investigators of covering up the allegations.
Moses Carter, spokesman for the Liberia National Police, said they were looking into the allegations. Marzah accused Benjamin Yeaten, Taylor’s former director of the Special Security Service, of having been involved in the murder. Yeaten’s whereabouts are unknown.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West African Justice Reporting Project.
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