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The Court of Appeal in Turku, Finland, has confirmed the acquittal of Gibril Massaquoi, accused of war crimes in Liberia. This is the end of a fiasco in which the Finnish judges twice avoided a miscarriage of justice.
What happens when a war crimes trial in Finland shifts to Liberia?
Finnish judges, prosecutors and lawyers are expected to arrive in the Liberian capital on 31 January. They are to stay for two months for the appeal trial of the former Sierra Leonean rebel commander, Gibril Massaquoi. Massaquoi was acquitted of all charges in the first instance trial in April 2022. This new trial is likely to be a carbon copy of the first.
Lansana Gberie, a renowned expert on the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia, provides an exclusive analysis of the trial of Gibril Massaquoi before a Finnish court, and how it led to a full acquittal on April 29. He worries about the consequences of a trial that, he says, was “misguided”. And he has a suggestion to Massaquoi if he is to receive financial compensation for the time he spent in prison.
What was supposed to be an innovative and exemplary judicial experiment has turned into an adventurous rush to conviction, with questionable investigative practices and fanciful historical theories. On April 29, by acquitting Gibril Massaquoi, the judges spared Finnish justice from greater embarrassment. But the Massaquoi trial, while affirming the presumption of innocence, is a painful lesson for the practice of universal jurisdiction.