Finnish Appeal Court Upholds Gibril Massaquoi’s Acquittal

Cllr. Jonathan T. Massaquoi has described as a victory for Africa and the rule of law, the January 31 acquittal verdict handed down by a Finnish Court of Appeal, to acquit Gibril Massaquoi (no relationship), a former Sierra Leonean warlord.

The Appeal Court’s judgment confirmed the early decision of the District Court and found that it was not proven that Mr. Massaquoi was guilty of the offenses he was charged with. 

Gibril Massaquoi, a former commander and spokesman of the Revolutionary United Front, was arrested in 2020 for atrocities committed during the Liberian civil war, in which he was accused of rape, ritual murder, and recruiting child soldiers, by the Finnish prosecutors.

Cllr. Massaquoi himself was hired by Gibril Massaquoi’s Finnish lawyers immediately after the court was first located in Liberia for two months, starting in early February 2023, to hear witnesses' testimonies.

According to Cllr. Massaquoi, some of his responsibilities, was to research Liberia's law and provide interpretation to his Finnish counterparts.

Massaquoi, during a press conference, accused both Hassan Bility, the founder of the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), and Alian Werner and Civitas Maxima, an organization based in Geneva, Switzerland for providing false and misleading information that resulted in the Finnish authorities' trial of Gibril Massaquoi.

Cllr. Massaquoi, who reports emerged recently that he was being considered by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai as Minister of Justice, is also representing Agnes Revees Taylor, the ex-wife of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Madam Taylor is seeking a US$15 million defamation suit against Werner, Civitas Maxima, and Bility, at the Liberian Civil Law Court for her prosecution by a UK Court, which later acquitted her of the multiple charges, including murder, which had happened during the latter part of July 2002.

The Court of Appeal further ruled that the prosecutors claimed that certain murders alleged to have been committed in Lofa County and Monrovia, but they had not been proven to have happened as described in the charges.

“Like the District Court, found that it was not proven that Mr. Massaquoi was guilty of the offenses he was charged with,” the court said.

The Court of Appeal said, concerning the events in Lofa County, only a few witnesses had identified Mr. Massaquoi as the perpetrator. 

“All these identifications had been made after Massaquoi was arrested in Finland in March 2020 and the arrest had been made public in the media with photographs of Mr. Massaquoi included in the reports.”

“Also regarding the events in Monrovia, the identifications were, with a few exceptions, made after the above-mentioned time.”

According to the Court of Appeal, the evidence presented in the case suggests that Mr. Massaquoi had not at all been in Lofa County at the time (between August and December 2001) of the offenses referred to in the charges. 

It was proven that he had resided in a safe house of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, from March 2003 until and beyond the 18th of August 2003, the judgments noted.

According to the evidence presented in the case, there had not been any periods of several days during which his presence in the safe house would not have been controlled reliably. 

“The evidence, evaluated as a whole, suggests rather convincingly that Mr. Massaquoi had not been in Liberia when the offenses in Monrovia referred to in the charges had been committed (i.e. between the 1st of May and the 8th of August 2003),” the court ruling said. 

The verdict of the Court of Appeal was also based on the evidence presented about his stay in Freetown in July and August 2002, considering it to be fairly unlikely that Mr. Massaquoi had been involved in the above-mentioned acts of torture in Klay. 

“The Court of Appeal has approved the conclusions of the District Court that none of the charges against Mr. Massaquoi were proven,” the court noted.