{"id":28551,"date":"2022-12-16T15:48:23","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T15:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility"},"modified":"2022-12-16T16:14:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T16:14:28","slug":"liberia-singling-out-bility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility","title":{"rendered":"Liberia: Singling out Bility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Schaack also commends the work of the Liberian human rights organization, the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), which has worked with its Swiss partner, Civitas Maxima (CM) to document the alleged crimes of Liberian warlords.<\/p>\n

Their work has seen the direct or indirect prosecutions and convictions of many individuals for their roles during the wars. Some of them include Kunti Kamara, a former battlefront commander of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy, (Ulimo), who was sentenced by a French criminal court last month to lifetime in prison for complicity in crimes against humanity, torture and aggravated acts of barbarism and Alieu Kosiah, another former Ulimo commander who was sentenced in June 2021 by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court to 20 years in jail for war crimes. The court\u2019s appeal chamber is however hearing Kosiah\u2019s case beginning next month, January.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Mohammed Jabateh, commonly known as \u201cJungle Jabbah\u201d another former Ulimo commander was sentenced to 30 years in jail for perjury and immigration fraud by a US district court in Philadelphia. Tom Woewiyu, number two to Charles Taylor, a former Liberian President, in Taylor\u2019s National Patriotic Front of Liberia structure was also convicted of perjury and immigration fraud by a district court in Philadelphia. But he died of Covid in 2020, as he awaited his sentence.<\/p>\n

Schaack acknowledges the organizations\u2019 work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cases would not be possible without the amazing work of the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) and other Liberian and international civil society actors who have rigorously, reliably, and with unwavering integrity worked to keep the dream of justice alive,\u201d says Schaack. \u201cLiberians can be proud of the work of their compatriots in the GJRP who are working hard to support war crimes accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberians have also largely praised the two organizations for pushing for accountability for past crimes.<\/p>\n

But the GJRP and CM have come in for rebukes, mainly from alleged perpetrators, including Agnes Reeves Taylor, Taylor\u2019s ex-wife, Kamara and Kosiah who have questioned their credibility and accused them of coaching and bribing witnesses. Some witnesses during the trial of Gebril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean rebel leader, prosecuted in Finland for his alleged atrocities in Liberia\u2019s second civil war, also made the same charges against the human rights organizations. But they have repeatedly denied such allegations.<\/p>\n

Schaack raises concern about threats against Bility and his staff. She does not however name those who are making such alleged threats but wants the matter to claim the attention of all Liberians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should also be concerned, as am I, that the GJRP\u2019s work has resulted in threats and intimidation against their staff members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bility agrees with Schaack that it\u2019s time to end impunity for past crimes and commends her for singling them out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am motivated by the fact that the US is standing with us firmly,\u201d says Bility in a WhatsApp message to us. \u201cI believe we are doing a good job and I\u2019m happy for the recognition coming the the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just like Ambassador Schaack, Bility makes no identification of who has allegedly threatened him, or his workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout naming names, because this is legal matter, the threats come from those who oppose justice and accountability in Liberia,\u201d he says. \u201cThose who murdered innocent Liberians and want to go with impunity. They are those who have been prosecuted and their allies, as well as those who think they could get prosecuted.They come from all disnaded factions. But some are more intense than others. Honestly, I have no clues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bility does not also want to comment on whether bribery allegations against them by witnesses in Massaquoi\u2019s trial could gain traction with juries in the US, where Moses Wright and Sekou Kamara, alias \u201cK-1\u201d are expected to go on trial later in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t comment on the Massaquoi case because it\u2019s ongoing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bility is currently in Brussels, Belgium attending the European Union NGO Forum on Human Rights under the theme: \u201cStop Impunity.\u201d Bility and the over 200 delegates at the conference, including from the US, Europe and Africa are discussing war crimes evidence collection\/gathering.<\/p>\n

This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of its West Africa Justice Reporting Project.<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. Schaack also commends the work of the Liberian human rights organization, the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), which has worked with its Swiss partner, Civitas Maxima (CM) to document the alleged crimes of Liberian warlords. Their work has seen the direct or indirect prosecutions and convictions of many individuals for their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-28551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nLiberia: Singling out Bility - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Schaack also commends the work of the Liberian human rights organization, the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberia: Singling out Bility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Schaack also commends the work of the Liberian human rights organization, the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T15:48:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T16:14:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671193165.68.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"786\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"498\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Liberia: Singling out Bility\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-16T15:48:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-16T16:14:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\"},\"wordCount\":721,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671193165.68.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-singling-out-bility\",\"name\":\"Liberia: Singling out Bility - 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