MONROVIA, Liberia—A former soldier of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF), has contradicted other defense witnesses about when an accused warlord from the country was taken into a UN “safe house.”
By Varney Dukuly with New Narratives
“Defense 10” told the Turku Court of Appeal of Finland that Gibril Massaquoi was taken into the house as a “protected witness” on March 10, 2002.
The house was supervised by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
“It was the final day we parted—he and me,” said Defense 10, as he faced a lengthy questioning from prosecutors and judges in his one-hour testimony on Tuesday.
But his testimony contradicts the testimonies of Massaquoi and other witnesses, who told both the district and appeal courts that the former RUF commander was taken into the safe house in 2003. This is one of the points at issue of this marathon trial. Prosecutors have repeatedly argued that Massaquoi breached rules of the safe house and came to Liberia to fight for Liberian government forces, who were being battled by rebels from the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. They’ve claimed that it was during that time that he committed mass murders, particularly against civilians at Waterside in Monrovia.
But Massaquoi and his lawyers have maintained his innocence. And the lower court did agree with them when it acquitted him a little over a year ago on grounds that prosecutors had failed to prove his charges “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Defense 10, a former radio operator for the RUF, did also corroborate the testimonies of other defense witnesses that Massaquoi headed an external delegation of the group to Liberia for peace purposes in 2000.
But there was another point of contradiction in his testimony: He told the court that Massaquoi did not return to Liberia afterwards. But prosecutors reminded him that he had told the district court Massaquoi returned to Liberia in 2001 for his girlfriend.
The witness was also grilled over his testimony that the disarmament of warring parties in Sierra Leone ended in January 2001, a statement that contradicts accounts of other defense witnesses that the exercise did end in December of that year.
“Defense 20,” Tuesday’s other defense witness, was praiseful of Massaquoi for his service to the RUF.
“Gibril Massaquoi was the most educated man in the revolution,” said Defense 20. “They called him Mr. Peace. He went where peace was. Whenever we were in meeting, he talked to people gently.”
The hearings continue on Wednesday.
This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of its West Africa Justice Reporting Project.