By: Al Smith, U.S.A.

For the past 10 years I’ve served as the Chief Investigator for the International Justice Group, non-profit organization, based in Washington, DC. In that capacity I have been investigating allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious human right violations, primarily focused on Liberia. Our organization has been seeking justice and accountability for the victims of the civil wars in Liberia by seeking prosecutions, Global Magnitsky Act and/or Travel sanctions against perpetrators in Liberia.

Also, IJG has been actively supporting the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia, including testifying before the US Congress. Along the way we have uncovered a number of unscrupulous acts involving other human rights organizations that were involved in criminal misconduct involving the coaching of witnesses to lie in support of a malicious prosecution of individual(s) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These are criminal acts involving the conspiracy to maliciously prosecute people by suborning perjury whereby you coach witnesses to provide false statements and false testimony. In a world seeking justice it is not difficult to find support from good willed humanitarians to join and in some cases champion the cause of justice.

Sadly, there have been some human rights NGO’s that have exploited the goodwill of humanity and reaped the personal and financial gains of using universal jurisdiction to get people prosecuted. We strongly support the legitimate and transparent prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. So, we believe in justice for all and not selective justice by engaging in malicious prosecutions and suborning perjury by coaching witnesses to lie in order to line your pockets. 2 While in Liberia in 2014 I learned about a program for recruiting, training, and compensating witnesses that was being utilized to maliciously prosecute war crimes cases against specific people. One of those individuals knowledgeable of the scheme was Darious Tweh.

He had been working with Hassan Bility and had first-hand knowledge of the witness coaching scheme. He knew it was wrong and was willing to expose the criminal operations. As a result, he agreed to infiltrate the provided the information; he subsequently turned into an insider witness and collaborated for many years with Hassan Bility, the Executive Director of the Monrovia, Liberia-based Global Justice Research Project NGO, and Alain Werner, the Executive Director of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Civitas Maxima NGO and the Center for Justice and Accountability California, USA. Tweh reported that they were all involved in a fraudulent scheme to maliciously prosecute individuals for war crime cases involving accused war actors with cases in the United States and Western Europe.

The process was to obtain phone numbers of the targeted persons, and social media information for identification purposes for the recruited, coached paid witnesses in order to identify the accused persons. With this information, they will then submit fraudulent affidavit under oath to indict their targeted person to be arrested. The efforts were being led by Alain Werner, a Swiss lawyer, and Hassan Bility, a Liberian and his co-conspirator, and they fully understood what they were doing. They continuously engage in criminal behavior to fraudulently and maliciously prosecute 3 individualsfor war crimes by suborning perjury and using coached witnesses to provide false statements and testimony against accused war actors. Here are a list of cases involving their malicious prosecution. Gibril Massaquoi – A Special Court for Sierra Leone witness was falsely accused by Werner and Bility. This led to his arrest and detention for nearly two (2) years.

He was acquitted twice on all charges, once on April 29, 2022, and then recently on January 31, 2024. The two acquittals of Massaquoi confirmed that they provided coached witnesses who lied under oath. There are allegations that Bility lied under oath multiple times against Massaquoi. This demonstrates that Bility has engaged in perjury. Many witnesses under cross examination by Massaquoi’s defense counsel revealed that they had never seen him before and were coached to lie about him committing war crimes. In return for their false testimony, they were paid by Alain Werner and Hassan Bility. Bility and Werner conspired to maliciously prosecute Gibril Massaquoi for war crimes, a protected witness ofthe United Nations backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. They suborn perjury by providing false statements and false testimony from coached witnesses they produced to the Finnish government. Their criminal actions led to the arrest and detention of Massaquoi, which lasted for 2 years. They falsely accused him of leaving a guarded safehouse in Freetown, Sierra Leone where he was a protected witness, and went to Liberia and committed war crimes.

Bility perjured himself by claiming he was tortured by Massaquoi on Independence Day of Liberia 2002 and he was sent by Joe Tate, the Liberian National Police Boss (courtesy of Charles Taylor 4 trial) This was a calculated lie because Joe Tate died in plane crash in Liberia in 1999. Bility had made 9 different statements about his arrest and torture at Klay with regards timing and the doers of his torture. I can prove this beyond doubt. Massaquoi was acquitted twice on all charges by the Finnish District Court and then again by the Appeals Court and the entire process lasted for 4 years. Massaquoi is currently suing Werner and Bility for $50 million USD for malicious prosecution and damages caused by them to his person and family. Agnes Reeves Taylor – Darious Tweh, while acting as an insider witness, got recruited, coached and paid, as part of our undercover investigation. This was truly nefarious, because this was an attempt to get Reeves arrested for the second time after she had been released. He was coached by Bility to provide a false statement against Mrs. Agnes Reeves Taylor to Detective Garry Titherly and his team from the British Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team. In order to gather evidence of this criminal conspiracy, Tweh agreed to be flown to Accra, Ghana by Bility and meet with the British Police. As a result, he wasthen flown to Accra, Ghana to make the false statement to the British Metropolitan Police team as coached to do by Bility.

His statement can be subpoenaed as well as a dossier that highlights all the information on the NGOs involved in this criminal enterprise of conspiracy and malicious prosecutions of individuals for war crimes, carried out by Alain Werner of Civitas Maxima, Switzerland; Hassan Bility of Global Justice Research Project, Liberia; along with Nushine Sarkati, Karthleen Roberts, and Carmen Cheung Ka-Man 5 of the Center for Justice Accountability, California. In addition, both Werner and Bility provided false affidavits to the British Government about Agnes Reeves Taylor. They stated that she tortured Alieu Varfley Kanneh during the Liberian civil war. As a result of this coached statement, he got granted asylum from a false affidavit prepared by Bility in Britain, in that affidavit the names of Former Vice President Mrs. Jewel Howard Taylor, Cllr. Robert Beer, Minister Eugene Nagbe, M o r e o v e r , they brought another coached witness called Morris Jarbarteh who said that Agnes Reeves Taylor ordered the execution of Margibi County Superintendent, Amos Bohn in 1990. In truth, Bohn fled Liberia during the war. He is alive and residing in London, UK. Based on their false information in sworn affidavits, Mrs. Taylor was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 27 months and after the case fell apart, she was released.

She is currently suing Werner and Bility for $15 million USD for malicious prosecution and other damage caused to her. Michel Desaedeleer – Bility and Werner provided false information and witnesses who lied against American/Belgian citizen Michel Desaedeleer where they conspired to maliciously prosecute him for war crimes, gun running, killing people and used forced labor to mine diamonds. They conspired to suborn perjury by providing witnesses to provide false statements and false testimony. Witnesses close to Desaedeleer and even to the late Foday Sankoh the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) leader, confirmed he was never involved in war crimes or arms trafficking and confirmed he was falsely accused. These reckless and false charges led to his arrest and detention in 6 Belgium where he committed suicide causing an unintended death tantamount to involuntary manslaughter. I strongly support and advocate for the prosecution of those individuals involved in war and economic crimes, and those who commit crimes against humanity.

We do not believe in the ends justifying the mean and certainly not a criminal conspiracy to maliciously prosecute individuals and suborn perjury by using coached witnesses to provide false statements and false testimony to achieve a conviction while seeking fame and fortune. I have received information that revealed Werner has received millions of US dollars and Euros over the past decade from donors to fund operations of Civitas Maxima and their sister organization Global Justice Research Project led by Bility. No doubt, there is a personal and financial gain engaging i n this criminal enterprise. In Liberia, Bility owns three (3) homes, one of which has a front porch displaying large concrete cinder blocks of dollar signs. Now that a new government is in place in Liberia, that is committed to fighting corruption and the re-establishment the rule of law, two criminal complaints were filed a g a i n s t Werner and Bility in Liberia with the Inspector General of Liberia National Police and the Attorney General of Liberia.

The complaints are accused of being involved in a criminal conspiracy to maliciously prosecute individuals for war crimes and suborn perjury by coaching witnesses to lie under oath. The witness coaching scheme operations are primarily done in Liberia and used on all of their cases. Now, is the time to hold Werner, Bility and all of those individuals who 7 participated in the criminal conspiracy be held accountable and brought to justice. I stand ready to work with the United States Congress to investigate the involvement of these NGOs and determine why the US government supports and promotes these people in the human rights community as well as use their services, in the US and abroad.

Civitas Maxima, Global Justice Research Project, Center for Justice and Accountability can’t come anywhere near the Liberian War and Economic Crimes Court. Their credibility is gone and should not be involved in this line of work. If allowed to be involved, there presence would immediately taint the court and be the first argument a defendant accused of War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity where any information used to charge would be grounds for an immediate dismissal. No doubt the defendants would raise the witness’s testimony was false and would raise reasonable doubt for the validity and credibility of the witness testimony linked to Billity, Werner and others involved in the conspiracy to maliciously prosecute individuals for war crimes and suborning perjury by coaching witnesses to provide false statements and false testimony.

The US government should not support or fund any organization such as Civitas Maxima, Global Justice Research Project, the Center for Justice and Accountability or any other person or organizations, who are involved in malicious prosecution of accused war actors. So, we call on the US Congress to make sure that the US government does not allow Alain Werner of Civitas Maxima, Hassan Bility of the Global Justice Research Project and any others affiliated with them to be involved in way with the establishment of the court. I also want to thank the US Congress for their continued support of the establishment of the court and ensure there is adequate funding 8 at the onset and annual appropriations are made to sustain the operations of the court until its work is completed.