Final verdict confirmed

Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court on Friday 30 October confirmed the guilty verdict against Alieu Kosiah, upholding his 20-year sentence for war crimes committed in Liberia's Lofa County, FrontPage Africa reported. The ruling closes the appeal against a landmark conviction secured under Switzerland's universal jurisdiction laws.

Kosiah, a former Liberian commander, was convicted of rape, murder and cannibalism during Liberia's civil wars. His case was one of the first in Europe to try crimes from Liberia's conflicts in a domestic court, and it has been closely watched by war-crimes prosecutors and victims' groups across West Africa.

Why the ruling matters

Universal jurisdiction allows national courts to try the gravest international crimes regardless of where they were committed, when the accused is present in the country. The Supreme Court's decision to uphold both the verdict and the sentence leaves the conviction standing in full, and removes the last domestic legal obstacle to Kosiah serving the full term.

Victims and their representatives had followed the appeal as a test of whether European courts would sustain convictions built largely on witness testimony from conflicts that ended decades ago. The court's confirmation answers that question in the affirmative for this case.

Sources: FrontPage Africa via OkayAfrica