Geneva- Alan White, a former Chief of investigation for the Special Court of Sierra Leone, that presided over the trial of former president Charles Taylor, has been found guilty of defamation by Swiss prosecutors.
The verdict, which is subject to an appeal, comes after the Swiss war crimes advocacy group, Civitas Maxima claimed in court documents that White accused Civitas Maxima and The Global Justice Reject Project of bribing witnesses in war crimes trials involving alleged perpetrators of the Liberian civil war.
Over 90 percent of sentences in Swiss legal cases are handed down by a prosecutor rather than a judge. This is because the Swiss system relies heavily on “sentence orders” – a controversial but cost-effective procedure.
Werner, a Swiss human rights lawyer, specialized in the defense of victims of armed conflicts, founder and director of Civitas Maxima (CM), an international network of lawyers and investigators based in Geneva that since 2012, represents victims of mass crimes in their attempts to obtain justice.
Werner, is director of the organization Civitas Maxima, which provides assistance and legal representation to victims of international crimes.
Background
On 10 November 2014, Swiss authorities arrested Alieu Kosiah, who was suspected of involvement in massacres in Liberia between 1993 and 1995, during the Liberian civil war. Alieu Kosiah was suspected of being a commandant of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy.
In its judgement of 18 June 2021, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland,
sentenced Korsiah to 20 years of prison, in particular for ordering the killing of civilians and soldiers, for rape, and for ordering cruel treatment of civilians.
During these proceedings, several victims were represented by Alain Werner.
However, during the hearing, Alieu Kosiah’s attorney, Dimitri Gianoli, attorney in Saint-Imier, submitted an email that he received on 19 July 2021 at his email address, from Alan White. The content of the email was as follows: “The charges were based upon information provided by Civitas Maxima headed by Alain Werner and Hassan Bility, Global Justice Research Project, in Monrovia which is financed by Werner. Werner & Bility became friends during the Charles Taylor trial. So they have been making millions of Euros pursuing cases, principally immigration fraud cases, against individuals from outside of Liberia. Their cases have been suspect based on false and coached testimony of witnesses recruited in Liberia and in return offered something of value such as money, witness protection for life in Europe and elsewhere and in Switzerland. Mohamed Kromah was reportedly provided asylum in return for providing false testimony against your client Alieu Kosiah. I’ve personally spoke to a couple of witnesses that said
Bility offered them money and relocation to a first world country if they would provide false testimony against Kosiah.”
The prosecution said the defendant, in criminal proceedings, implied that the aggrieved party, mainly for the purpose of earning money, recruited false witnesses in serious criminal cases and then coached them, with some promises, to give false testimony in court, thus implying that the injured party engaged in conduct contrary to honor or conduct constituting a criminal offence in open criminal proceedings regarding serious felonies in Liberia.
By doing so, prosecutors say Alan White committed a crime against the aggrieved party’s personal honor by addressing third parties (Dimitri Gianoli, Mike Müller and Kaarle Gummerus – Kosiah’s lawyers) and, by extension, the honor of Civitas Maxima, the association directed by the aggrieved party.
“Finally, the defendant refused to explain himself to the Swiss authorities on the matter, although he had the opportunity to do so by means of an international letter rogatory, and consequently failed to prove either the truth of his allegations or that he had serious reasons for believing them to be true in good faith.”
Werner, whose group, Civitas Maxima, has been crucial to the case against White told FrontPageAfrica, “This is not final. He (Alan White) refused to answer questions so the Prosecutors made this conviction.”
