The Paris Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced former rebel commander Kunti Kamara to life in prison for barbaric acts during Liberia’s first civil war and for being an accomplice to crimes against humanity by facilitating rape.
After an unprecedented trial in France, this 47-year-old former Liberian militiaman was found guilty of a series of abuses against civilians in 1993-1994, including the torture inflicted on a teacher whose blood allegedly ate the heart and his passivity on the front to the repeated rapes of two adolescents by soldiers under his authority.
The court thus followed the requisitions of the prosecutor who had demanded a life sentence against him, punishing crimes that had “harmed all humanity.”
The defense had requested the acquittal of all the facts, denouncing “gaps” in a file based on old testimonies.
Never tried in Liberia
Arrested in Bobigny in September 2018, Kunti Kamara appeared in Paris under the “universal jurisdiction” exercised, under certain conditions, by France to try the most serious crimes committed outside its territory. This is the first time that this mechanism has been used for acts committed in a country other than Rwanda.
At the time of the premiere of the libérienne civil war (1989-1997), Kunti Kamara was part of the Mouvement uni de libération pour la démocratie (Ulimo) who fought against the rival militia du redouté Charles Taylor et a fait régner la terreur dans le district de Foya (Northwest).
During the three weeks of trial, Liberian plaintiffs and witnesses described unspeakable atrocities: residents killed by drinking boiling water, trade in human flesh, intestines used as roadblocks.
The crimes of this bloody conflict, which killed a total of 250,000 people, have never been brought to justice in Liberia, where former rebel leaders now hold high positions in the state apparatus.
Source: BFM TV
