BREAKING: Swiss Court Jails Former Liberian Warlord For 20 Yrs

BREAKING: Swiss Court Jails Former Liberian Warlord For 20 Yrs

Swiss court on Friday sentenced former Liberian warlord Alieu Kosiah to 20 years in prison.

iexclusive News Nigeria report that Alieu Kosiah, 46, is the country’s first person to be found guilty of war crimes committed during the country’s deadly conflict a generation ago.

Alieu Kosiah, who was detained in Switzerland in 2014, was convicted guilty of several atrocities perpetrated during Liberia’s first of two civil wars, which killed over 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003.

The decision by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, in the country’s south, is the first time a Liberian has been convicted of war crimes committed during the conflict, either in Liberia or elsewhere.

While commanding the armed group United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), Kosiah was accused of committing a series of war crimes, which he denied.

He was found guilty by Swiss Court of 21 of the 25 accusations brought against him, including directing or engaging in the murders of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers.

He received a 20-year sentence, minus the more than six-and-a-half years he spent in custody.

He was also ordered to be exiled from Swiss territory for a period of 15 years by Swiss Court.

According to Human Rights Watch, Kosiah was the first Liberian to face prosecution for suspected war crimes committed during the country’s first civil conflict, which lasted from 1989 to 1996.

Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former warlord-turned-president, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2012, but only for atrocities perpetrated in Sierra Leone, not in his own nation.

To combat Taylor’s rebel force, the ULIMO armed group was formed.

Switzerland upholds the principle of universal justice, allowing it to try those accused of the most serious international crimes regardless of where they took place.

However, Kosiah’s case was the first time the country’s civilian courts heard an international war crimes case.

Liberia’s two civil wars were distinguished by horrific massacres, mutilations, and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war by sometimes drugged-up fighters.

After the hostilities concluded in 2003, the majority of the various factions’ commanders fled the country.

However, many of those in power at the time still have political and economic clout in the country after more than 15 years.