By Anthony Stephens
A Finnish court has additional compensation to Gibril Massaquoi, an ex-commander of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF), acquitted in 2024 of charges that he committed egregious human rights violations in Liberia under the direction of then-president Charles Taylor.
In 2024 the Pirkanmaa District Court in Finland ordered the country’s government to give Mr. Massaquoi a total of €390,000 ($US426,000) or €400 a day for loss of liberty and income during his protracted trial, which spanned four years, during most of which he was detained. It has now increased the amount to €600 daily or €424,000 ($US 463,983.40).
The initial compensation payment came after an appellate court agreed with the district court ruling that prosecutors had not proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Mr. Massaquoi, now 55, committed the crimes with which he was charged during Liberia’s second civil war between 1999-2003. Mr. Massaquoi was accused of committing a range of violation including rape, murder and torture in Lofa and Monrovia, including in July and August in 2003 when he was also detained in a safe house in Freetown, Sierra Leone, while giving testimony against Taylor. (It was as a result of this testimony that he was legally relocated to Finland.) The prospect that he may have escaped the safe house to travel to LIberia to commit crimes on behalf of Taylor while also testifying against him in Sierra Leone’s war time justice proceedings had potentially explosive implications for Sierra Leone’s Special Court and it’s officials, including Allan White, the Special Court chief investigator, who oversaw the safe house.
Mr. Massaquoi, who was detained 708 days through the marathon trial, was dissatisfied with the initial funds the state had given him and sought more in a suit against the state in October, for suffering he said he had endured in prison. On Friday, the district court granted his request.
“The exceptionally long duration of Massaquoi’s deprivation of liberty is a significant reason for increasing the amount of compensation for suffering,” the court said in its ruling. “During his imprisonment, Massaquoi has lost close ties with his family, which includes his wife and five minor children, the youngest of whom, born on 13 June 2020, was still unborn at the time of Massaquoi’s arrest (10 March 2020). The suffering caused by his imprisonment has been particularly aggravated by the fact that Massaquoi has not been able to support his spouse during the final stages of pregnancy or childbirth, and he has not been able to participate normally in the life of his youngest child for almost two years after his birth.”
The court said, “the State Treasury has reached the wrong conclusion in this case when it has considered that the restriction of contact is not a reason to increase the amount of compensation for suffering,” holding that, “in fact, the restriction of contact is directly related to Massaquoi’s deprivation of liberty and would not have been imposed if he had not been incarcerated.”
The court said the State Treasury had used the wrong cases as the basis in determining compensation for the former RUF commander. The State Treasury has not responded to requests for comment on the court’s ruling, but it has until March 21st to notify the court should it decide to contest it.
Mr. Kaarle Gummerus, Mr. Massaquoi’s lead lawyer, said he needed more time to digest the ruling.
“I have to read it carefully before commenting on it,” said Mr. Gummerus by WhatsApp to FrontPage Africa/New Narratives. “I have to check what kind of verdict it was and then I can say it was okay for us.”
Mr. Massaqoui’s trial grew out of a complaint by Global justice and Research Project, a Liberian NGO and its Swiss partner, Civitas Maxima.
This is the first case lost in court for the two organizations against people accused committing war-related crimes during Liberia’s civil wars. They have won several other cases in European and American courts, including in January, when Laye Sekou Camara, a commander of the Liberian Lurd rebel group, admitted that he had lied to US immigration authorities during his vias application process when he told them he had not committed human rights violations. He’s due to be sentenced in May, with prosecutors asking for a 40-year term.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.