Switzerland’s Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year prison sentence for former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah, while overturning his conviction for crimes against humanity.
Kosiah, 51, was convicted of war crimes committed between 1993 and 1995 during Liberia’s first civil war. The conflict was part of two civil wars in the country between 1989 and 2003 in which about 250,000 people died.
The court’s ruling, dated September 28 and published on Friday, confirmed Kosiah’s conviction for violating the laws of war and upheld the maximum custodial sentence imposed by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court.
However, it acquitted him of crimes against humanity, saying the charge could not be applied retrospectively. The offence was introduced into Swiss law in 2011, after the crimes in question were committed.
Switzerland recognises universal jurisdiction, allowing it to prosecute people suspected of international crimes regardless of where those offences took place.
The case was first heard in 2021, when Kosiah was found guilty of multiple atrocities as a commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy rebel group. An appeals chamber upheld the sentence in 2023 and, in what was described as a first in Swiss history, also convicted him of crimes against humanity.
The original verdict found that Kosiah ordered or took part in the killing of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers. It also found him guilty of rape, deploying a child soldier, ordering looting and repeatedly ordering or carrying out cruel and humiliating treatment of civilians.
The court also ruled that he had mishandled corpses. Kosiah settled in Switzerland in the late 1990s and was arrested in 2014.
Civitas Maxima, the Swiss organisation that works to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice, said the Supreme Court’s ruling made final the first war crimes conviction handed down by a Swiss civilian court and the first conviction anywhere of a Liberian for war crimes committed during Liberia’s civil wars.
“Today the survivors of Alieu Kosiah’s crimes have final justice,” said Alain Werner, the organisation’s director, who represents victims in the case.
Mr Werner added: “We are, however, deeply disappointed by the acquittal on crimes against humanity. What happened in Lofa between 1993 and 1995 is the very definition of a crime against humanity.”
