Liberia: Leading War Crimes Group Relocates Senior Investigator Abroad After Death Threats Ahead of U.S. Trial

Summary:

• Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group has relocated a senior investigator abroad after death threats allegedly linked to sympathizers of Moses Wright, a former Liberian army commander accused of masterminding the 1990 St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre, ahead of his November trial in the United States.
• The threats renew concerns over the safety of witnesses and investigators as Liberia moves toward establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court.
• Liberia’s police chief promises to follow up after war crimes group accuses police of ignoring complaints about threats and an earlier armed break-in.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

The head of Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group said the organization has relocated a senior investigator outside Liberia for his safety after he received repeated death threats connected to his work on the case of Moses Wright, the former Liberian army commander who is set to go to trial for war related crimes in the United States in November.

Hassan Bility, head of the Global Justice and Research project said the investigator, whom he declined to identify because of security concerns, received threatening text messages from people he described as “sympathizers” of Wright. The investigator had initially been relocated within Liberia before the threats escalated and the organization moved him abroad, Bility said. He had also received psychosocial counselling because of the trauma.

The revelation came at the start of a two-day event to review the five-year strategic plan of the Witness Protection Agency, the government institution responsible for protecting witnesses, victims and whistleblowers from threats, intimidation, retaliation and political coercion.

“This is very, very troubling,” Bility said. “So, an investigator is threatened. What about the witnesses and and victims?”

Experts said the threats highlight a growing challenge for Liberia’s efforts to hold people accountable for crimes committed during its civil wars: protecting the witnesses and investigators. The danger is taking on new urgency as Liberia moves toward establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court, which would depend heavily on witnesses willing to testify about atrocities committed decades ago, and the investigators pursuing evidence, while allies of accused perpetrators inevitably threaten and intimidate them and their families.  

Investigations and documentation by the Global Justice and Research Project and its Swiss partner, Civitas Maxima, working with authorities in foreign jurisdictions, have helped build cases in the United States and Europe against more than a dozen people accused of crimes connected to Liberia’s civil wars. But the work has also exposed investigators and witnesses to threats and intimidation. Global Justice has previously relocated witnesses because of concerns for their safety.

The relocation comes about seven months after three armed men broke into the organization’s compound in February. Bility said the investigator began receiving threats around the same time as the break-in and that the organization reported both matters to the Liberia National Police.

As the threats continued, Bility said, the organization moved the investigator from his home and relocated him elsewhere in Liberia. But he said the messages continued after the relocation and appeared to indicate that those sending them knew he had moved. One read: “you do[XXX], you ran away from your house again?” Another said: “You using jacket like ninja? Bro, only opportunity holding us and we will come for you soon.”

Bility said the organization had received no response from police to its complaints. It eventually concluded that relocating the investigator within Liberia was not sufficient and moved him abroad. 

 “We count on the Liberian government to do something to protect witnesses and those who investigate these kinds of international crimes,” Bility said.

Gregory Coleman, Liberia’s police inspector general, said in a WhatsApp message to FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that he would follow up on the complaints.

Bility said the threats had left him worried about the safety of his staff but would not stop the organization’s investigations.

“I feel a little bit scared for my staff,” he said.

Wright, 73, is a former commanding general of the Armed Forces of Liberia. He has been accused of commanding the army during the period in which the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre was carried out, one of the most notorious atrocities of Liberia’s civil wars. An estimated 600 civilians, including men, women and children who had sought refuge at the church in Monrovia, were killed in the space of hours with guns and machetes.

No one has been criminally prosecuted for the massacre. But in 2022, a U.S. federal court ordered Moses Thomas to pay US$84 million to four survivors after finding the former commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit civilly liable for the killings. Thomas rejected the ruling and fled the United States for Liberia to avoid having future income seized to pay victims.

Wright is not being prosecuted for the Lutheran Church massacre or for war crimes directly, because international crimes committed out of the U.S. were not crimes in U.S. law in 1990. His federal prosecution, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, instead alleges that he committed criminal immigration fraud when he lied about his wartime conduct while seeking U.S. immigration benefits and citizenship. It is the same legal approach used to secure convictions by the same federal court against Mohamed Jabateh of the Ulimo faction in 2017 and Tomas Woewiyu, Charles Taylor’s number two, in 2018.

Wright was granted asylum in the United States in 2000 and became a lawful permanent resident in 2008. He applied for U.S. citizenship in 2013.

A federal grand jury indicted Wright in 2021, though the indictment remained sealed until U.S. prosecutors announced the charges in June 2022. He was charged with fraudulently attempting to obtain U.S. citizenship, fraud in immigration documents, false statements in relation to naturalization and perjury.

Prosecutors allege that Wright either personally committed or ordered AFL troops under his command to commit atrocities, including the persecution and murder of civilian noncombatants, assault, false arrest and false imprisonment. Wright denies the charges.

If convicted, Wright faces a maximum possible sentence of 165 years in prison and a US$7 million fine, according to U.S. prosecutors.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.