Author: Prue Clarke

PARIS, France – It didn’t take long for prosecutors to catch Kunti Kamara in multiple traps in day two of his war crimes trial Tuesday. The former colonel with the United Liberation Movement of Liberia insisted repeatedly that he had not been trying to flee Europe when he was arrested in January 2020 carrying a falsified Guinean identity card and a bus ticket to Portugal from where, prosecutors alleged, he intended to get a flight to Guinea.

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By Gerald C. Koinyeneh with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – One of the men accused of bribing and tampering with witnesses in the ongoing war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi rejected the allegations in court on Wednesday. Joshua Milton Blahyi, also known by his war name, “General Butt Naked”, was accused of colluding with Hassan Bility to bribe witnesses in Mr. Massaquoi’s ongoing trial by the court from Finland, and other high profile cases tried in the United States and Europe involving people connected to the Liberian civil war. Bility is the director of the Liberian NGO, Global Justice Research…

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By Mae Azango Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – A third defense witness took the stand on Tuesday in the ongoing war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi to claim that Hassan Bility, the human rights advocate whose work gathering evidence has been instrumental in the trials of a dozen accused war criminals in international courts, had asked him to tell lies that would implicate Alieu Kosiah who was convicted of war crimes in Switzerland in June. The witness, codenamed L3 to protect him from retaliation, undermined his own testimony by insisting Bility made the request in May this year,…

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Mae Azango, Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – Monday brought more surprising testimony at the trial of Gibril Massaquoi, the former Sierra Leonean commander of the Revolutionary United Front. A defense witness told the court from Finland, where Massaquoi was living when he was charged, that American organizations had planted him inside justice advocate Hassan Bility’s organization to spy on Bility eight years ago. The witness claimed the unnamed organizations did this because Bility’s Global Justice Research Project, working with Swiss-based Civitas Maxima, had successfully recruited so many witnesses to testify against accused perpetrators living in the United States…

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By Mae Azango, New Narratives Senior Justice Correspondent MONROVIA, Liberia – The war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi took a dramatic turn on Friday when a defense witness accused top human rights advocate Hassan Bility of bribing him and other witnesses to lie about Mr. Massaquoi’s actions in the civil war. The first witness, 48, codenamed L1 to protect his identity, said Mr. Bility offered him $US16,000 to lie against Mr. Massaquoi, the former Revolutionary United Front commander on trial by the court in Finland for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Liberia’s civil war. L1 also claimed Mr. Billity…

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By Mae Azango Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives  MONROVIA, Liberia – A witness at the ongoing war crimes trial of ex-Sierra Leonean rebel leader Gibril Massaquoi has told the Finnish court hearing the case that then Liberian President Charles Taylor heard that Massaquoi was a spy and ordered his arrest. Massaquoi was given warning and escaped Liberia hours before he could be caught. In an unexpected twist in the trial, which has been running since February, the witness, who claimed he was an ex Major General of Strike Force Marine of Taylor’s forces, alleged that Massaquoi was feeding information…

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MONROVIA, Liberia – The lawyer for accused war criminal Gibril Massaquoi’s says he is confident of his client will be acquitted. Speaking outside the court at the start of week two of the court’s unexpected return to Liberia, Kaarle Gummerus did not accept this reporter’s invitation to make a full-throated claim of Massaquoi’s innocence, but he insisted that the prosecution would not be able to prove his client’s guilt to the high standard required by Finnish law.

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Thomas Rejects Judgment. Activists Call on Government to Prosecute. By Mae Azango and Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – It was one of the most brutal massacres of the Liberian civil war. In April 1990 soldiers loyal to embattled President Samuel Doe shot and hacked to death 600 men, women, children and babies seeking refuge in the church. It would become known as the Lutheran Church massacre and bring international attention to the conflict that was unfolding. The massacre is blamed for a cascade of revenge killings that fueled 14-years of civil conflict that destroyed the country and…

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Mae Azango Senior Justice correspondent with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – The trial of Gibril Massaquoi has continued to focus on the central explosive question of whether the defendant escaped UN witness protection in Freetown in June-August 2003 to commit war crimes in neighboring Liberia. Massaquoi was under witness protection for his role informing on ex-combatants in Sierra Leone’s civil war for the post-war justice tribunals held in the country including the Special Court for Sierra Leone which convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes. Massaquoi’s lawyers have argued that he could not have violated or abused the freedom…

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