Author: Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

PARIS, France – An appeal court here has upheld the 2022 conviction of Kunti Kamara, a former commander of the Ulimo rebel group, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Lofa County during Liberia’s first civil war.

PARIS, France – As the appeal of a former commander of the rebel group Ulimo, of his 2022 war crimes conviction enters its final days, defense lawyers for Kunti Kamara called on the three judge panel and nine jurors to overturn the conviction saying there is a lack of evidence Kamara committed the crimes.

PARIS, France – The judge in former Liberian warlord, Kunti Kamara’s appeal of his 2022 conviction for war crimes, dealt a blow to Kamara’s case on Monday by striking out his two challenges to the charges. The former commander with the Ulimo rebel group had introduced two new arguments in this appeal claiming that he was 15 at the time the crimes took place and therefore was too young for the case to be heard in an adult court. He also claimed that the crimes took place before France’s 10-year statute of limitation and so the charges against him came…

PARIS, France – Lawyers defending Liberian warlord, Kunti Kamara, in his appeal of his 2022 conviction for war crimes, advanced their second challenge to the case in court Friday, arguing that France’s statute of limitations for such crimes is ten years meaning Kamara should not have been charged in 2018 with the crimes that took place in 1993.

PARIS, France – Massa Washington took many pauses. Her voice trembled with sorrow. When she could not control it, the former commissioner with Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, sobbed quietly, a testament to the trauma she still carries as a victim of the war and from hearing the testimonies of 22,000 victims of Liberia’s civil wars.

PARIS, France – One of former Ulimo rebel commander Kunti Kamara’s own witnesses contradicted his testimony in Kamara’s appeal of his 2022 conviction for war crimes here on Wednesday. Abraham Jusuf Kromah, also a former Ulimo commander, was called by the defense to testify about Kamara’s actions in the war but he appeared to do his case more harm than good.

PARIS, France – “Fine Boy” Kamara was one of the most notorious leaders of the Ulimo rebel group when it terrorized the town of Foya, Lofa County in Liberia between 1993 and 1994. On Tuesday he became a witness, appearing via a video link from Monrovia in the appeal of fellow Ulimo commander Kunti Kamara (no relation) of his 2022 war conviction here for crimes including rape, cannibalism, torture and murder.

PARIS, France – War convict, Kunti Kamara, told the French court hearing his appeal of his 2022 conviction here for war crimes that his faction, that his rebel faction United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was heavily supported by the Guinea government. Guinea was key to supplying arms and ammunition at the time they captured and controlled Foya, Lofa County between 1993 to 1994.

PARIS, France – The first Liberian victims, who are part of the case against convicted war criminal Kunti Kamara, testified today in Kamara’s appeal of his 2022 conviction. Last week the witnesses were made up of experts, journalists and investigators, designed to give the jury – made up of three judges and nine French civilians – context they need to understand the chaos of Lofa County during the war in 1993.

PARIS, France – The 4,400 miles between France and Liberia closed on Friday when present day news from Liberia made it into the appeal hearing here of convicted war criminal Kunti Kamara. Court President (chief judge) Jean Marc Lavergne used the testimony of Alain Werner, director of the Switzerland-based justice advocates Civitas Maxima, to ask about this week’s passage of a bill to establish a war and economics crimes court through the Liberian legislature.