Gibril Massaquoi, a former commander and spokesperson for the Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh’s RUF, was arrested in 2020 in the country where he lived in exile. But the court found on Friday April 29 that there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
The prosecution failed to prove with sufficient certainty that Gibril Massaquoi had participated in the rapes, murders and abductions of child soldiers for which he was prosecuted. Based on an 800-page judgment, the court therefore acquitted him, even considering that he was ” probable that the accused was not in Liberia at the time the crimes were committed “, what he had argued during the hearings.
The Finnish prosecutor has not yet decided whether to appeal. Still, the accused emerged free from the court, after a trial lasting more than a year. A trial that was relocated to Liberia and in Sierra Leone last year, to hear dozens of witnesses who had recounted the litany of crimes committed by RUF fighters between 1989 and 1996, then between 1999 and 2003. But some testimonies proved fragile, and in all cases not sufficient to personally incriminate the accused.
The Angel Gabriel, as he was nicknamed, had already won immunity from the UN Special Court for crimes committed in Sierra Leone, after he agreed to testify against his former leaders. But he could still be prosecuted for crimes committed in Liberia.