IPNEWS-MONROVIA: The much publicized criminal prosecution that was slated to begin in Monrovia this week has now turned into a facts finding mission.

Judges from Finland currently are digging up witness testimonies in Liberia and are touring the north of the country for a landmark trial against a warlord accused of committing atrocities in Liberia’s civil war.

Gibril Massaquoi is accused of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity between 1999 and 2003 including murder, rape, and using child soldiers.
Massaquoi, 51, a former senior member of the Revolutionary United Front, has lived in Finland since 2008 but was arrested in March after a rights NGO investigated his record during the civil war.
The investigations could set a precedent as few have faced trial for war crimes committed in Liberia.

In a historic move, the Finnish judges are also hearing evidence on Liberian soil — the first time war-crime proceedings have taken place in the country.
“When we come from a totally different country, from a different part of the world, it’s difficult for us to imagine in what kind of circumstances, in what kind of environment the witnesses live,” said Finnish state prosecutor Tom Laitinen.

“Understanding that better helps us understand the witnesses better: so distances between places, seeing the houses, the places the witnesses have mentioned. So everything comes together and helps us to understand the case.”
Around a quarter of a million people were killed between 1989 to 2003 in a conflict marked by brutal violence and rape, often carried out by child soldiers.

Judges visited the northern village of Kamatahun on Thursday, and are due to continue on to the nearby village of Yandohun.
Fighters under Massaquoi’s command are accused of committing atrocities in both places. Fighters torched the villages in the 1990s, they said, and took away residents for forced labor in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Interestingly, the man pushing for the prosecution of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean man, Hassan Bility, himself is accused of being a rebel fighter of the defunct UNLIMO K rebel group of former University Professor, Alihaja G.V. Kromah.

Hassan Bility himself was the Co-Chairman of the political wing of the notorious rebel UNLIMO K faction which is accused of committing gross human rights violation including executions, murder, rape, force labor , among others.
Like Gibril Massaquoi, as Deputy Commander within the Sierra Leone rebel group RUF, Hassan Bility is also accused of being an Intelligence (recognizant officer) for the notorious rebel group UNLIMO K.

Before there arrival of the Finnish investigating team to Liberia this week, Liberia’s Solicitor General Cllr. Sayma-Syrenius Cephus emphasized that the Liberian Government is not a party to the trial in Finland, and has neither given a permission for the setting up of a War Crimes Court in the country.

For his part, Liberia’s Information Minister, Rennie cautioned Liberians that the establishment of any legal institution to seek Justice for the war and economic crimes court, must initially be agreed upon by the members of the Legislature.

Minister RENNIE also stated that the trial of RUF war criminal Mr. Gibril Massaquoi currently on trial in Finland is based upon Justice Ministry Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreement subsisting between the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Finland which allows for cooperation in criminal investigation and the prosecution of accused persons.

In the same vein, the International Justice Group (IJG) has sharply criticized and condemns Hassan Bility and all those in the corridors of justice advocacy, especially advocacy for the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia (W&ECC) who are using the advocacy platform for personal, selfish, and political gains.
“There is nothing more dangerous and criminal like the commission of war crimes itself, than profiteering on the backs of the victims of war crimes in Liberia; Without justice, Liberia will never be peaceful again and the establishment of a War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia is the way to go…”, Cllr Jerome J. Verdier, Executive Director of IJG and Chairman of the Erstwhile TRC of Liberia said in a statement released over the weekend.

The statement released out of the US Capitol in Washington DC went on to describe ongoing efforts to prosecute, Gibril Massaquoi, ex RUF rebel commander from Sierra Leone based on a ‘crescendo of lies and unfounded allegations’ of war crimes committed in Liberia as falsely claimed by Hassan Bility and cohorts in Switzerland is a serious distraction from the quests of all Liberians for justice for Liberian victims of the war through the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court in Liberia.

The statement further condemns all of those in and out of the Government of Liberia (GOL) who are maneuvering and manipulating behind the scenes and working with these profiteers and some international actors to stage manage war crimes court advocacy in Liberia by a process that will remotely establish a court outside of Liberia to deny Liberians of true justice.
Liberia’s Deputy House Speaker, Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa has also spoken sharply on the implementation of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) resolution, as supported by the United States Congress 1055.

The Liberian legal expert told IPNews in an exclusive interview that the issues of transitional justice is not necessarily hunting down perceived persons of Human Rights violations, but ensuring an established legal and infrastructure process supported by Liberians themselves to see that those bearing the greatest responsibility of War crimes are brought under the ambience of justice in other to set the stage for adherence to transitional justice and the rule of law.

Cllr. Koffa, who is now district No. 2 Representative of Grand Kru County, and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives Liberia, stated that why it is the responsibility of the Liberian government to work with international established legal bodies yet Liberia cannot neglect its own ‘national soul’ to support and give full faith and effect to others.

Deputy Speaker Koffa stated that remedy to resolving Liberia’s long running issues of transitional justice is by giving full support to the Implementation of the TRC road-map highlighted by the United States Congress joint resolution 1055.

On the question of whether or not Liberia has the jurisdiction to tried International Human Rights’ Crimes, Deputy speaker Koffa, affirmed, however stated that neither him or the government is aware about the transfer within days the Finnish War crimes trial to Monrovia.

Justice Ministry officials in Monrovia remain silent up to press time on its knowledge over the transfer of War Crimes trial of a Sierra Leonean man Gibril Massaquoui for war Crimes to Monrovia according to Finnish Judicial authorities.

Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa insist that while Liberia interposes no objection to the trial or other trials of International Human Rights nature, yet there are key issues of legal and infrastructural issues that Liberia needs to address in setting the stage for the trials of International crimes and crimes against Humanity.
“I don’t think the quest by Finnish authorities to transfer the trial of the Sierra Leonean man to Monrovia, is intended to embarrass the government of Liberia. However, there is lack of infrastructure that needs to be address in other to give ‘free, fair, and transparent’ justice for both perpetrators and victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. So than, I continue to say, Let’s follow the path of the TRC recommendation.” Deputy Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa stated.

Now, it’s approximately 18 years since Hasan Bility was last arrested in an apartment on Benson Street, adjacent the famous OK Dry Cleaning.
Bility, a former practicing journalist, was arrested in Monrovia in June 2002 and held incommunicado for almost six months as what the government of Charles Taylor called an “unlawful combatant” and “prisoner of war.”
During his detention, he was interrogated according to him, by former President Taylor himself. He was later charged with ‘espionage and acts of subversion’.

Mr. Taylor-led government was lambasted by Liberians abroad and the international community for gross human rights abuses against Mr. Bility.
In early 2003, he was released from detection after intense pressure from United Embassy officials. Bility won global admiration for his perceived stance against human rights abuses under the Taylor regime.

He narrated that he was tortured repeatedly after the regime accused him of being in communication with LURD rebels, a rebel movement commanded by a member of Bility’s ethnic Mandingo. Sekou Damate Conneh was the head of LURD.
Following mounting calls from international media and rights groups, he was released, and he fled into exile. Bility is currently Director of the Global Justice and Research Project in Liberia, seeking justice for victims of atrocities and abuses committed during the country’s 14 years civil war.

The authoritative Independent Probe unearthed disgusting accounts about the linkages of rebel affiliation and ill-gotten wealth of the internationally self-acclaimed human rights fighter.

Documents available to IPNews alleges Mr. Bility’s rebel link with the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), another rebel movement that was led by another man of Bility’s ethnic group. He has, however, denied his participation with this group.

On two different occasions, callers on local radio talk shows in Monrovia, have accused Bility of being a member of the disbanded rebel movement and Youth Co-Chairman of the opposition political party, All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP), Youth wing, which was founded and led by Mr. Alhaji G.V. Kromah, the man who led the Mandingo faction of ULIMO.

The Mandingo tribe waged a counter war against Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels in the early 90s after a break-away faction of Taylor’s rebels – INPFL commanded by now Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, captured President Samuel Kanyon Doe in September 1990 at the Freeport of Monrovia.

One of the radio talkshow callers, had directly charged Bility of being a member of the rebel group. Responding, Bility dissociated himself of being a member of any warring faction; adding: “I think the caller that just called needs to watch his words,” he cautioned.

However, on Thursday, 10 October 2020, while on another talk show hosted by OK FM, Bility was again confronted with the same allegation by a caller.
This time around, he categorically clarified that ‘being member of a rebellious group is not an international crime’. “Let me tell you what constitutes war crimes: If you kill babies, rape women and pillage state resources,” he explained.

Concerns are mounting from critics of Hassan Bility that he is playing a war-like game by mostly pointing out to international disgrace elements that fought his ULIMO rebel-affiliated group, leaving out gross human right violators within the ULIMO rebel movement.

Some notable fierce killers of ULIMO that remain at large and without remorse to mention by the rights advocate Bility are Mohammed Jabbateh aka “Jungle Jabbah” (ULIMO-K since 1994), Kunti Kamara (ULIMO K), Alieu Kosiah (ULIMO K), Alhaji Kromah (ULIMO-K since 1994), General Butt Naked (ULIMO-J since 1994), Raleigh Seekie (ULIMO J), Armah Youlo (ULIMO J), etc.
Gotten Wealth:

An in-depth investigation conducted by IPNews has established incontestable pieces of evidence how the International acclaimed human rights fighter has been erecting huge condominiums in Liberia, from proceeds realized from his so-called human rights violation investigations.

IPNews has established collections of properties owed by Mr. Hassan Bility, in different parts of Liberia, namely Johnsonville, a suburb of Liberia’s Capital Monrovia. The second is his residence in Upper Caldwell, and another currently under construction in Parker Corner, Brewerville.
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