Abstract:
- Martina Johnson, a former insurgent commander, is anticipated to face trial in Belgium for alleged struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity throughout Liberia’s first civil struggle.
- The Belgian “Chambre du Conseil” closed its decade-long investigation in September, discovering there was enough proof to refer the case to trial. Judges will now resolve if a trial can be held.
- Johnson is called amongst Liberia’s “most infamous perpetrators” within the 2009 Fact and Reconciliation report, implicated for atrocities dedicated throughout Operation Octopus – the brutal siege of Monrovia in 1992.
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
Martina Johnson, probably the most highly effective commanders of Charles Taylor’s Nationwide Patriotic Entrance for Liberia (NPFL) insurgent group, is anticipated to go on trial in Belgium subsequent 12 months for atrocities allegedly dedicated throughout Liberia’s first civil struggle.
A courtroom is contemplating proof gathered throughout a 13-year investigation into allegations she oversaw Operation Octopus, a four-month operation in 1992 throughout which rebels, together with youngster troopers, besieged the capital Monrovia. Belgian prosecutors accused Johnson of taking part straight in mutilation and mass killings.
In a textual content message, Hassan Bility, director of International Justice and Analysis Mission, which helped collect proof within the case, described the potential trial as “a aid,” noting {that a} conviction would convey solace to the victims of Johnson’s alleged crimes, “who fell prey to the humiliating and outrageous crimes attributed to her.”
“Folks committing struggle crimes won’t get away with it. She’s simply one among many,” mentioned John Stewart, a TRC commissioner and survivor of the Octopus siege. “There’s a complete checklist of those that are to be tried.”
The Belgian judicial probes into alleged struggle crimes by Johnson have been painfully gradual. Eleven years after she was arrested in Belgium, and 13 years after the investigation started, a courtroom within the metropolis of Ghent formally closed the investigation in September and located that the investigators found enough proof to refer the case to trial. The events now await a listening to earlier than the judges of the “Chambre des Mises en Accusation” (a part of the Attraction courtroom) and a call on whether or not to ship the case to trial.
Attorneys for victims and Johnson have been vital of the gradual tempo of the investigation – throughout which period three different circumstances have gone from investigation to conviction in European international locations. Alain Werner, director of Swiss NGO Civitas Maxima which investigated Martina Johnson’s alleged crimes in 2011, instructed a reporter in 2020 {that a} key witness had already died and he feared others would additionally die.
Johnson’s lawyer, Jean Flamme, mentioned witnesses he needed to interview have been additionally useless. He has repeatedly petitioned to have the case dismissed or for the file to be closed, citing erosion of proof and procedural unfairness. In the meantime, Johnson, now 55, has been topic to strict guidelines of home arrest and is affected by a critical liver illness.
Johnson is listed amongst “most infamous perpetrators” in Liberia’s 2009 Fact and Reconciliation Fee closing report. She is accused of getting served as a commander in Taylor’s insurgent military that sparked Liberia’s first civil struggle between 1989 and 1996. The rebels launched an assault on Monrovia on October, 1992, referred to as Operation Octopus, which claimed the lives of lots of of civilians and members of overseas humanitarian organizations. Johnson is suspected of getting herself killed, tortured and maimed a number of folks at a army checkpoint on the Dry Rice Market on the sting of town.
The NPFL dedicated 63,843—or 41 %—of all crimes reported to the fee. Information of the closure of the investigation comes on the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the mass killings.
Johnson is being investigated for crimes below the precept of common jurisdiction, which Belgum’s Parliament handed into legislation in 1993. The legal guidelines permit for the trial of “worldwide crimes”—resembling genocide, struggle crimes, or crimes towards humanity—no matter the place or after they occurred. She could be the primary girl among the many seven individuals who have confronted trial for crimes dedicated in Liberia in the USA and Europe. Her case will come as Liberia strikes into the following levels of establishing its personal struggle and economics crimes courtroom to strive worldwide crimes dedicated in the course of the 14 years of battle.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as a part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Mission. Funding was offered by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia which had no say within the story’s content material.
