Swiss Federal Criminal Court drops massacre charge against former Liberian rebel leader accused of war crimes
The former Liberian rebel leader Alieu Kosiah has been cleared of involvement in a massacre, but he remains in detention in Switzerland awaiting a trial, accused of war crimes. The Federal Criminal Court has thrown out a 2016 legal complaint by a young woman who had accused Kosiah of being responsible for a massacre committed by rebels from the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), who had kidnapped and killed 25 village residents, including her father and brother. She had accused the rebel leader, known to his men as “General Kosiah”, of having ordered the massacre and of having directly participated himself. The verdict, published on Monday, confirms an earlier ruling by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), which had closed the case after having listened to the complainant and to various other people it had investigated. The court agreed with the attorney general, which said the young woman had not been present at the time of …
