Another Defence witness has claimed before Finland’s Turku Court of Appeal in Monrovia that Gibril Massaquoi, a one-time commander with Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF), did not fight in Liberia’s second civil war, as alleged by prosecutors.
“Defence 7” [name given him by the Court to avoid retributions], who said he was also a commander for the RUF told the Court that he, Mr Massaquoi and other RUF fighters came to Liberia in 2000 with a delegation for a peace mission at the requests of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and Charles Taylor, the Liberian President at the time.
The Court has traveled to Liberia for the second time in less than a month to particularly hear defence witnesses after the Sierra Leonean government did not honor its request to go there.
