Witnesses travelled from as far away as Liberia to help sink a former warlord in a US court. There will be more trials as some of those held responsible for the Liberian civil war are held to account.
A jury in Philadelphia has convicted Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, former number two to Charles Taylor in the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, on 11 counts of criminal immigration fraud related to the crimes he committed in Liberia's civil war.
Woewiyu, 72, becomes the highest ranking official to face justice for Liberia's civil war which killed 200,000 Liberians, displaced half the population and devastated the country.
The jury heard evidence that the NPFL had recruited tens of thousands of child soldiers and specifically targeted people of certain ethnic groups. The NPFL also targeted west Africans of all nationalities in retribution for the involvement of west African peacekeepers in Liberia in the period from 1990-1993.
"Thomas Woewiyu's trial is crucially significant for Liberia. Never before were the crimes of the NPFL described in such detail in a courtroom. An important piece of our history was documented during this trial," said Hassan Bility, an awarded human rights defender and director of Global Justice Research Project...
