February 8, 2023 [Liberia] Day 10: Three more witnesses heard
Civilian 37 is heard
Prosecution questions Civilian 37
Civilian 37 testified that she lived in Monrovia during the war, between 2001 and 2003. The prosecution asked her to describe the situation in Monrovia, and when she was arrested by soldiers. Civilian 37 explained that fighting was going on in Monrovia, but she was still doing business. She and her friends used to sell biscuits, and then they saw a biscuit store that had been broken into. When they went there, soldiers came and arrested Civilian 37, her friends and some other people present. They were taken under a bridge, where they were beaten. A soldier tried to rape Civilian 37’s sister, who resisted: the witness saw this herself. Gabriel Massaquoi ordered that Civilian 37’s sister should be killed, and she was shot. A group of soldiers arrived on the scene and started shooting, that’s when everyone managed to escape.
She located the store on the Old Bridge towards West point, on the right side of the road. Soldiers were selling biscuits from the store, when some other soldiers, Massaquoi’s group, came. Civilian 37 confirmed that she saw Massaquoi at the store and mentioned that she had seen this Massaquoi person before, as she had been doing business near the area where the soldiers were located.
The people arrested, including Civilian 37 and her friends, were taken under the bridge to a building the soldiers called their office. Massaquoi was also there. She heard the name from his soldiers, who called him Angel Chief Massaquoi. He was the leader of the soldiers. According to Civilian 37, he had a Sierra Leonean accent, a white t-shirt and a beret. He said that he was an angel and that he could send people to God.
Civilian 37 also mentioned that she still has bruises from the beating, which were photographed by the Finnish police were viewed in Court by the judges and lawyers.
When asked about the general situation in Monrovia, Civilian 37 explained that the food situation was dire at the time, and that it was difficult to get food. Civilian 37 also mentioned that after these events she described, the fighting did not last for a long time.
Defense questions Civilian 37
Asked by the defense whether there still is a store in the same location, Civilian 37 said that there is a shop indeed, but they do not sell biscuits – rather sandals and footwear. The biscuit store was 5 to 10 minutes’ walk away from the bridge. The soldiers present at the store were Liberian, but Massaquoi had a Sierra Leonean accent. According to her, Massaquoi said that his name was Angel Gabriel and that he could send people to God, but his soldiers called him Chief Massaquoi.
Citing the lower court’s judgment, the defense reminded that Civilian 37 had said that the commander introduced himself by saying that people call him Gabriel Massaquoi, but his name is Angel and that he could send people to God, whereas in this instance, she had said that she heard the name from his soldiers, not from him personally. Civilian 37 explained that she had said the same thing every time. There was a brief discussion about the various ways her testimony had been recorded in the lower court.
Civilian 37 further testified that it was difficult for her to remember, but that there was some shooting at the biscuit store when the soldiers arrived. She also said that she could not remember whether somebody died at the store. The defense cited Civilian 37’s testimony from the pre-trial investigation report, where she had been recorded saying that those who did not want to leave with the soldiers, were shot inside the store. She answered that she had indeed mentioned in Appeals Court that there was shooting going on, but she was not sure whether somebody had died.
Civilian 37 explained that she had met Massaquoi once before the events at the biscuit store. This was at New Bridge not too long before her sister was killed; she saw him in a vehicle. Defense cited Civilian 37’s police interview again, where she had been recorded saying that the meeting at the biscuit store was the only time she had met Massaquoi. Civilian 37 said that this is true, as she only saw him in a vehicle the first time, and she met him for the first time at the biscuit store.
Defense also asked whether Civilian 37 had spoken about Massaquoi with anyone before she met with Finnish police in December 2019. She said that she had told people about her scars. She also mentioned that other people had spoken about Massaquoi, as he had a particular stigma. According to Civilian 37, she had spoken about Massaquoi in the past, but not recently.
Finally, Civilian 37 confirmed that she saw her sister being shot. The defense asked her about it because during her testimony at the lower court, she had said that she had not seen the shooting herself, but only heard a gunshot.
After the defense’s questions, the prosecution asked Civilian 37 one more question about the timing of the events. Civilian 37 said that these events took place during World War I.
Civilian 46 is heard
Prosecution questions Civilian 46
Civilian 46 described being in Monrovia in 2001 during World Wars I and II, selling plastic bags in Waterside with his brother. They saw a store that had been broken into and people were stealing biscuits, so they went there to look for food as the food situation was dire in Monrovia. According to Civilian 46, a group of soldiers arrived at scene, began shooting and then arrested a lot of people present at the store. The arrested were taken under a bridge. According to the witness, the soldiers had a leader who called himself Gabriel Massaquoi. This man picked two people from the group and shot them with a pistol; one of them was Civilian 46’s brother. According to Civilian 46, Gabriel Massaquoi called himself Angel Gabriel and told people that he “sends people to God” and the people should tell God he sent them. Then he gave an order to shoot the remaining group of people, and everyone started running for their lives. While running away, Civilian 46 met a lady called Civilian 28 whom he knew from Waterside. Civilian 28 was crying with blood coming from her right foot. Civilian 46 passed her and managed to escape the scene.
Civilian 46 was also asked about the timing of the events. He said they took place during World War I in 2001, with World War II being in 2002. After World War III, it took 3 to 4 years for Charles Taylor not to be in power anymore. According to Civilian 46, the bridge they were taken to was the Old Bridge in Waterside, now called New Bridge. The people were taken on the right side of the bridge when looking from Waterside. The biscuit store was not far from the bridge on the other side of the road, the right side when looking at Waterside from the bridge.
Civilian 46 testified that he saw the person called Gabriel Massaquoi or Angel Gabriel for the first time at the biscuit store. He came there and gave an order to take the people to the bridge. He was speaking English like a Sierra Leonean, like “Krio”. According to Civilian 46, he was wearing a white round neck t-shirt and “soldier trousers”. To justify shooting him, Gabriel Massaquoi had said that Civilian 46’s brother was a rebel on a reconnaissance mission. Civilian 46 told the prosecution he saw the shooting with his own eyes. Whilst he knew his brother’s name, he did not know the name of the other man shot by Gabriel Massaquoi.
Civilian 46 also told the Prosecution that he saw an unfinished building next to the place where they were taken by the bridge. He could not remember a lot of details about the building, but said that it hadn’t been painted at the time.
Defense questions Civilian 46
Civilian 46 testified that he had been to the biscuit store’s location recently and that there is a new store in the same location but he did not know what kind of a store it is. He testified that people were shot at the biscuit store when he was there; however, he had not heard about similar events taking place at other shops in Waterside. Civilian 46 stated that he only remembers the name of Gabriel Massaquoi, he had not heard the names of any of the other soldiers. This Angel was also the only person who introduced himself at the scene.
Civilian 46 was asked to describe the building near the bridge, where they were taken to from the biscuit store. He said that it was an unfinished building and it looked like it had a second floor to it. He could not remember if the building had a roof. Civilian 46 was not sure whether he saw Liberian soldiers at the scene. He said that they might have been there when everybody were running away from the bridge. The defense asked him if he remembered any of the factions that were fighting in Waterside at the time, to which Civilian 46 replied that he could not remember them. He was asked about ATU, as he had mentioned in the pre-trial investigation that this unit was part of the government forces fighting the rebels at the time. Civilian 46 said that he might have said it, but he could not remember it at this moment. Civilian 46 also said that Angel Gabriel’s soldiers were mostly young men aged between 20 and 25 years old, some of them older than that. He was kept at the bridge for less than an hour before he managed to escape.
When asked if he was aware how the Finnish police had gotten in contact with him, Civilian 46 explained that Civilian 28 had helped the police to reach him. Civilian 46 had seen Civilian 28 bleeding by the bridge when he was escaping the scene. After the war, they both met at Red Light market, where they did not discuss the events of Waterside, but only exchanged phone numbers. Civilian 28 then called Civilian 46 as someone wanted to talk to him, Employee 1. Civilian 46 spoke with him on the phone and then came to Monrovia to be heard by the Finnish police. Civilian 46 was not aware of any other witnesses in the case, except for Civilian 28, who had called him. Civilian 46 had not spoken with anyone about the events in Waterside after being interviewed by the Finnish police and before he was heard in lower court.
The defense asked Civilian 46 about the timing of the events. In the pre-trial investigation, Civilian 46 had mentioned that the events took place in 2003. The witness responded that he had forgotten the timing, as people used to call the events World Wars I, II and III, with World War I being in 2001. Asked about the fact that he – alongside other witnesses – had changed the timing from 2003 to a preceding year during the proceedings, Civilian 46 stated that he had only made a mistake in timing the incident.
The prosecution asked if him and his brother, who have the same surname, are biologically related. Civilian 46 confirmed this.
Civilian 80 is heard
Prosecution questions Civilian 80
The prosecution began their questioning by asking Civilian 80 to describe an incident where they were captured by soldiers. According to Civilian 80 this was in 2002, 2003. World War I took place in 2001. Civilian 80 was living in Monrovia with his brothers [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. The situation at the time was not normal and soldiers from the government’s ATU were staying in the area. ATU soldiers were harassing civilians at the ELWA junction, and it was hard to find food. One morning Civilian 80 and one of his brothers decided to go to Waterside to look for food or goods to sell. They saw a biscuit shop that had been broken into and people were looking for food inside. His brother decided to go inside the store. A man came with a group of soldiers and gave an order, he claimed that the people at the store were not civilians, but enemy spies and they should be shot. Civilian 80 testified that the soldiers started firing, killing several people, including his brother. Civilian 80’s other brother was also killed by the soldiers at the store in Waterside, Civilian 80 witnessed this personally.
According to Civilian 80 the shop was in Waterside, just after the bridge, on the left side of the road coming from the bridge. Civilian 80 told the prosecution that the commander who gave the order at the shop was called by the soldiers Chief Gabriel Massaquoi. Civilian 80 was taken from the store to under the bridge; there were a lot of people tied up there. According to Civilian 80, a lot of people were executed there by the commander, Gabriel Massaquoi. Civilian 80 saw him execute people, he also said he was “Angel Gabriel and he was sending the people to God”. Civilian 80 told that Gabriel Massaquoi was not Liberian, but Sierra Leonean based on his manner of speaking, as he was speaking differently. He had a .45 caliber pistol that he used to kill people.
Near the place where people were executed, Civilian 80 also described a building where the soldier stayed: it was a concrete building, but it did not have many floors. Civilian 80 could not remember the color of the building at the time.
Civilian 80 testified that he did not stay for long under the bridge, maybe for an hour. Civilian 80 further confirmed that the events took place in 2002 or 2003, World War II was in 2002 and World War III in 2003. He did not count the days between the incident to when Charles Taylor left. According to Civilian 80, President Taylo left the country in 2004.
Civilian 80 also testified that he had seen news about Mr Massaquoi’s arrest on BBC. He also saw Massaquoi’s picture in a newspaper.
Defense questions Civilian 80
The Defense began questioning Civilian 80 asking about the newspaper articles. Civilian 80 testified that he went to the Ministry of Education and bought a paper there. He discussed the news with others. Civilian 80 said he knows Civilian 61, his sister, who also testified in the case, but he does not know anyone else who would’ve testified in the case. Civilian 80 was also asked about how the Finnish police managed to contact him. He testified that Employee 1 was the contact between him and the Finnish police, but he could not remember when he had met with Employee 1, only that it was long before he met with Finnish police.
Civilian 80 was also asked about the group of witnesses interviewed between November and December 2020. He said he had not been in contact with them, he only remembered his sister. Civilian 80 also testified that he lived in ELWA Junction between 2002 and 2003 and that the incident happened while he was living there. The defense asked him about the timing, since the lower court’s judgment had recorded that Civilian 80 lived in ELWA junction between 2000 and 2001: Civilian 80 answered that in 2001, during World War I, he lived in Monrovia and that the incident with Massaquoi took place between 2002 and 2003. The defense referred to the pre-trial investigation report, where it had been recorded that Civilian 80 had said that the incident took place in 2001 and asked him for clarification. Civilian 80 answered that he did not want his mind being changed by external factors.
Finally, the witness testified that he did not see the soldiers looting, but that the soldiers began shooting once Massaquoi gave the order. Civilian 80 was standing right next to Massaquoi when he gave the order. Civilian 80 heard the commander say that his name in Sierra Leone was Gibril Massaquoi and Gabriel Massaquoi in Liberia and that his “killer name” was Angel Massaquoi. Civilian 80 did not remember talking about Sam Bockarie. When his pre-trial investigation recording was played, in which he is heard mentioning Sam Bockarie present in Waterside, he responded that he does not know about him: the person in Waterside was Gabriel Massaquoi.
The prosecution asked Civilian 80 about a relative named [REDACTED]. According to police interviews, this relative was with him at Waterside during the incident; however, now the witness could not recall whether she was with him or not. He confirmed having a relative that was called like that, and that she might have been there, but that his mind “has not been on this thing”. He said he had no contacts with this relative as “we all went our way since the crisis.” Civilian 80 confirmed that both his brothers were killed at the biscuit store.
