{"id":12686,"date":"2026-10-30T21:17:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T21:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12686"},"modified":"2026-10-30T21:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T21:17:05","slug":"swiss-supreme-court-upholds-liberian-ex-rebel-commanders-20-year-sentence-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12686","title":{"rendered":"Swiss supreme court upholds Liberian ex-rebel commander\u2019s 20-year sentence | Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alieu Kosiah killed civilians and unarmed soldiers, and ordered lootings and other crimes against humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Published On 30 Oct 2026<\/span>30 Oct 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Switzerland\u2019s supreme court upheld a 20-year jail sentence for former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah on Friday, but overturned a conviction for crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Switzerland\u2019s Federal Criminal Court found Kosiah, now 51, guilty of multiple atrocities committed during the first of Liberia\u2019s back-to-back civil wars, in which about 250,000 people died between 1989 and 2003.<\/p>\n

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In 2023, the court\u2019s appeals chamber upheld his 20-year sentence for war crimes and, for the first time in Swiss history, also made a new ruling that Kosiah was guilty of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland was asked to review the case, and its verdict, dated September 28, was published on Friday.<\/p>\n

The court \u201crejected the appeal filed by a high-ranking Liberian military official challenging his conviction for violations of the laws of war committed between 1993 and 1995 during the first Liberian civil war\u201d, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the court has acquitted the individual of the charge of crimes against humanity, based on a strict application of the principle of non-retroactivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switzerland recognises the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to prosecute individuals suspected of international crimes, regardless of where those crimes were committed.<\/p>\n

The court said the offence of crimes against humanity \u2013 introduced into Swiss law in 2011 \u2013 could not be applied to acts committed before then.<\/p>\n

Kosiah\u2019s conviction for violating the law of war was upheld, as was the maximum 20-year custodial sentence imposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision makes final the first war crimes conviction ever handed down by a Swiss civilian court, and the first conviction anywhere of a Liberian for war crimes committed during the country\u2019s civil wars,\u201d said the Swiss organisation Civitas Maxima, which works to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice.<\/p>\n

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A security guard peers through the door of the Doctors Without Borders compound near the US embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, on July 23, 2003 [File: Ben Curtis\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Kosiah settled in Switzerland in the late 1990s and was arrested in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the survivors of Alieu Kosiah\u2019s crimes have final justice,\u201d said Civitas Maxima director Alain Werner, who represents victims in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like war crimes, crimes against humanity refer to atrocities, including murder, torture and rape. However, instead of isolated or sporadic events, the charge is used for incidents carried out in a widespread or systematic way.<\/p>\n

In the 2021 verdict, Kosiah was found guilty of a slew of war crimes committed as commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy rebel group.<\/p>\n

He ordered or participated in the killing of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers, as well as rape and the deployment of a child soldier, the court ruled.<\/p>\n

He had also ordered looting and repeatedly ordered, or had himself inflicted, cruel and humiliating treatment of civilians and mishandled corpses, according to the verdict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Alieu Kosiah killed civilians and unarmed soldiers, and ordered lootings and other crimes against humanity. Published On 30 Oct 202630 Oct 2026 Switzerland\u2019s supreme court upheld a 20-year jail sentence for former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah on Friday, but overturned a conviction for crimes against humanity. In 2021, Switzerland\u2019s Federal Criminal Court found Kosiah,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t