Swiss Court Upholds Ex-Liberian Warlord's 20-year-sentence

A Swiss appeals court on Thursday upheld a 20-year sentence for a former Liberian warlord, confirming his war crimes conviction and, for the first time in Swiss history, handing down a verdict of crimes against humanity

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jun, 2023 ) :A Swiss appeals court on Thursday upheld a 20-year sentence for a former Liberian warlord, confirming his war crimes conviction and, for the first time in Swiss history, handing down a verdict of crimes against humanity.

Alieu Kosiah was found guilty by Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court in June 2021 of war crimes over multiple atrocities committed during the first of Liberia's back-to-back civil wars, in which around 250,000 people died between 1989 and 2003.

The court in the southern city of Bellinzona found him "guilty of violating the laws of war".

The verdict marked the first time a Liberian was convicted -- either within the west African nation or anywhere else -- of war crimes committed during the conflict.

Kosiah, who settled in Switzerland in 1998 and was arrested in the Alpine country in 2014, appealed against that verdict, pleading his innocence and demanding an acquittal.

But on Thursday, the Federal Criminal Court's appeals chamber, also in Bellinzona, confirmed the earlier ruling and the accompanying sentence of 20 years behind bars. The appeal ruling also said he should be deported and barred from re-entering Switzerland for 10 years.