For the first time on the 10th of October the French court started a trial against Kunti Kumara for crimes against humanity that happened in the 1990’s during the civil war in Liberia.
Kunti Kumara, also known as C.O. Kundi, was a battlefield commander for The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), an anti-rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War that lasted from 1989 to 1996.
He was accused of having perpetrated himself or supervised “inhuman acts” going from forced labor to an assassination followed by cannibalism in Lofa between 1993 and 1994. The crimes were systematic and directed toward the civil population, inspired by political and ethnical motives. After three weeks of trial, the court of assizes of Paris condemned Kunti Kumara to life imprisonment on the 2nd of November 2022. (France: condamnation prononcée pour des atrocités commises au Liberia, 2022)
This trial was organised under the terms of “universal jurisdiction” of France. The principle of Universal Jurisdiction is based on the belief that the fight against crime and impunity is borderless. Under this principle states have the option to prosecute criminals that are on their territory regardless of where the crimes may have been committed or the nationality of the criminal (Universal Jurisdiction Law and Practice in France, 2019).
The principle of Universal Jurisdiction is extremely important for countries in which impunity is openly accepted. Liberia has never tried the crimes of its civil war, which was one of the worst conflicts on the African continent, causing the death of 250 000 people or 10% of the Liberian population at the time (Montserrat, 2022). As the AFP explained:“Liberia is a country where there is still total impunity for these crimes, so this trial is very important to bring the voice of the victims”.
However, the cassation court of France has recently limited the universal jurisdiction of France. In mid-November 2021 legal proceeding against Abdulhamid C, a former member of the Bashar al-Addas regime in Syria, were about to conclude. The accused was indicted for crimes against humanity by the special prosecutor in Paris. But the process came to an abrupt stop on November 24th, 2021, when the Court of Cassation, France’s highest jurisdiction for civil and criminal matters ruled that the proceedings against Abdulhamid C were illegal.
Indeed, in the appeal 21-81.344 of the Cassation Court of France, the Court stipulates that Syria was not part of the statute of Rome which defines international crimes on which the International Court has a jurisdictional power. Moreover, crimes against humanity and those of complicity of this crimes were not incriminated in Syria, and a decree of 1950 guaranteed to the military services and to the air force an immunity of legal pursuits for crimes committed during the exercise of their functions. (Soulard, 2021) This decision brought calls to a new reform from the organisation of the civil society and a decision could influence the universal jurisdiction of France.
Bibliography
Universal Jurisdiction Law and Practice in France. (2019, February). Retrieved from https://trialinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Universal-Jurisdiction-Law-and-Practice-in-France.pdf
Montserrat, C. M. (2022). Liberian Civil Wars: Depending on Universal Jurisdiction to Fight Impunity. Platform, 3.
Ayad, C. (2022). Compétence universelle : la Cour de cassation appelée à trancher. Le Monde, 2.
France: condamnation prononcée pour des atrocités commises au Liberia. (2022, November 2). Retrieved from Human Righs Watch: https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2022/11/02/france-condamnation-prononcee-pour-des-atrocites-commises-au-liberia
Soulard, M. (2021, Novembre 24). Cour de cassation Pourvoi n° 21-81.344. Retrieved from Cour de Cassation: https://www.courdecassation.fr/decision/619de43eb458df69d4022a18
Comments