March 28, 2023 [Liberia] Day 38: Witness allegedly approached for testimony
Witness L1 is heard
The defense questions L1
The defense began questioning L1, a defense witness, by asking if he could recall why he had been asked to testify. The witness responded that it was because of Background 1, whom he knows well. They had gotten to know each other a long time ago, on Jamaica Road in 1991 or 1992. They grew up in the same community, and Background 1 was the reason he joined ULIMO. When Alhaji came, people were encouraged to become fighters to ‘liberate the Muslims’. According to L1, Background 1 was the secretary of Alhaji, the rebel leader of ULIMO. This took place in 1992 when ULIMO was at Poe River.
After the 1990s, the witness had been in contact with Background 1 when he was arrested in District Five by Taylor. Background 1 told him that he had been arrested because he had been recruiting people to kill Taylor. He told L1 to go into hiding. The witness could not remember the exact date of this meeting, but estimated that it took place in 1998 or 1999, when Taylor arrested Background 1. At the time, Charles Taylor was already the President of Liberia.
After this arrest, L1 described meeting Background 1 after he came back from the USA, 3 to 5 years ago. Background 1 had arranged the meeting and picked him up from Nepsor. He wanted the witness to testify against people who had fought in the war. Background 1 said many things, such as Gibril Massaquoi being indicted, and things about Jungle Jabbah and Alieu Kosiah. Background 1 gave him 200 dollars and told him that if he testified against Gibril Massaquoi, that he gutted someone in Foya, he would give him 20 000 dollars and asylum somewhere abroad, but not the USA. According to L1, Background 1 was trying to recruit multiple people to testify this way, some of them have already ‘died of frustration’.
The witness testified that he and Background 1 went to Mamba Point Hotel for this meeting. At the time, he had not heard any news about Gibril Massaquoi or his arrest, he only knew of Jungle Jabbah. He declined Background 1’s offer but kept the 200 dollars he had given him, and Background 1 left him on Carey Street. L1 testified that he had not heard of Gibril Massaquoi at the time, he heard the name for the first time from Background 1. Background 1 did not show him any photographs. According to L1, he had also asked [REDACTED] to testify against Jungle Jabbah, but he had died from ‘frustration’. This made the witness scared of Background 1’s proposition.
L1 explained that he met Background 1 several times after this meeting. Once at General Langasah’s funeral about two years ago, and again at Sekou House on Duport Road, where Background 1 was talking to another general. Background 1 had told the general that [REDACTED] should leave where he was living in London. At the funeral, Background 1 had exclaimed that L1 did not seem to want money as he had declined his offer. The witness had discussed the proposition with a few friends, such as L2 and L3.
The defense showed L1 some photographs from the pre-trial investigation police report, but he did not recognize them.
The witness testified that he had heard about Background 1’s other attempts of recruiting witnesses from the people that he had approached, they would discuss between themselves. He used to meet with these people at the veterans’ office.
Finally, L1 described his previous interviews with the Finnish police. According to him, the police got his contact information through Peter Solo. Dr. Alan White called him, and then a woman from Finland called, telling him that the police would come and meet him. According to L1, Dr Alan White knew to call him through Peter Solo. Alan White also sent him some messages on WhatsApp, which he had shown to the Finnish police. Alan White had been the prosecutor in the Taylor case, L1 did not know him personally beforehand but had heard of him on the BBC. Alan White asked him whether he knew much about Background 1, which he had confirmed. Alan White then said that Gibril Massaquoi’s lawyer would call him. Massaquoi’s lawyer called him and told him that the Finnish police would call him.
The prosecution questions L1
The prosecution began by asking about L1’s role in ULIMO. The witness testified that he was a fighter in ULIMO during the ‘ULIMO war’ in Liberia. He began fighting in 1992. He was not fighting when Taylor was president. During the first war, they were fighting against Taylor. L1 did not see the RUF during the war. He had lived in Lofa between 1994 and 1997 in Voinjama, Zorzor, Salayea, and Foya. In 1994, he went to Gbarnga and in 1997, he left Lofa and came to Monrovia.
Background 1 had told the witness that he was a journalist and had studied at the University of Liberia. Background 1 welcomed Kromah at one point, L1 had photographs. When asked what he believes Background 1 does for a living, the witness responded that ‘he blames people for what happened during the war’, but stated that he did not know the details of his work. He explained that Background 1 had taken people to the United States to testify against Jungle Jabbah and promised them money, but had not paid these people, which frustrated them. According to L1, Background 1’s job does not relate to searching for witnesses as he is just compiling lies. L1 stated: ‘The best people to prosecute he knows them. He was Secretary to one of them’. According to L1, Background 1 knows that he only fought in ULIMO, and only during Liberia’s first civil war.
L1 had also fought in Monrovia, in Octopus and during the 6 April war in 1996. He knows Jungle Jabbah aka Mohammed Jabatteh very well, as he used to be his commander. Jungle Jabbah was a high ranking ULIMO official, he was a deputy to Dumboya, the commander-in-chief. Jungle Jabbah was a ULIMO commander in charge of Popolu during the first Liberian civil war. Jabbah used to beat soldiers who harassed civilians. He was a world-famous rebel who knew the Quran. For example, if someone was captured, they should not be killed. Background 1 knew that L1 knew Jungle Jabbah personally as he was there with them. He had also asked L1 to testify against Jungle Jabbah, during the meeting where he gave him 200 dollars. He wanted him to go to the United States to testify, but L1 told him that he did not want travel to the US as he didn’t want to go to jail for fighting in the war. When the prosecutor pointed out that the Jungle Jabbah case took place in 2017, the witness explained that Background 1 told him that Jungle Jabbah would be appealing his judgment. He added: ‘The man is just enriching himself through people. He has an estate in Brewersville’.
L1 testified further that he knows Alieu Kosiah. Kosiah is his boss. He was L1’s commander in ULIMO at Tody. L1 and Background 1 also discussed Alieu Kosiah when they spoke about Jungle Jabbah. Background 1 asked him to falsely testify against Kosiah. He wanted him to testify that Kosiah fought in Lofa despite him never fighting there. L1 could not fully understand what Background 1 asked him to do because of his deep voice. The witness testified: ‘If the people can really go in the community and ask people one at a time there is not one of them that can trust Background 1. If I had the money, I could sue him because he made me go and fight a war’.
The testimony Background 1 asked him to give about Jungle Jabbah was that he killed people and made people open the stomachs of pregnant women. This was the same story to he was supposed to tell about Gibril Massaquoi. The witness understood Background 1 when he spoke Mandingo, he only had issues when he spoke English. Background 1 asked him to testify that Alieu Kosiah and Jungle Jabbah fought in Lofa. Background 1 brought up Gibril Massaquoi during their meeting at Mamba Point. He asked L1 to testify that Massaquoi killed people, committed mass murders and opened the stomachs of pregnant women in Lofa. He wanted him to say that the RUF attacked Foya, which the witness did not believe to be true.
Background 1 had asked many people to provide fake testimonies in the Massaquoi case. When asked to provide the names of some of these people, the witness stated and repeated: ‘I believe civilians standing here and civilians standing there, you will not see civilians hanging around when fighting is going on’, and ‘I know when the war crimes court comes here, I will be the first to testify. Many people know about this, but they are afraid to come and testify’. After intervention from the Presiding Judge, the witness provided a few names. These people were not witnesses in the Massaquoi case but were involved in the Jungle Jabbah and George Boley cases.
The witness met with Background 1 at Mamba Point from a teashop. He was living in Monrovia at the time and has lived in Monrovia ever since. Background 1 gave L1 the 200 dollars because he wanted him to testify. The 200 dollars were to encourage him to provide a fake testimony. Background 1 told him to go and testify against Gibril Massaquoi and say that he opened people’s stomachs in Foya. He had said that the 200 dollars were not a bribe but an encouragement, just a payment for transportation costs.
According to L1, Peter Solo was a high-ranking official in ULIMO and LURD, he was the former commander-in-chief in Grand Jeddeh. He did not know how Peter Solo and Alan White knew each other. The prosecution showed the witness a picture of some WhatsApp messages, which he confirmed were messages between himself and Alan White. In one message, Alan White asks L1 to provide a list of witnesses Background 1 had recruited to testify against Gibril Massaquoi and Agnes Reeves. The witness explained that Dr. White was not aware of the veterans’ office L1 used to go to, it was Peter Solo who connected the office and the veterans to Alan White. Agnes Reeves was not discussed at the veterans’ office, Peter Solo asked L1 about her. The witness only knew that Agnes Reeves was suing Background 1, and Background 1 had asked him to testify against her as well. Background 1 had asked him to testify against her in the same meeting at Mamba Point where he asked about everyone else. He wanted him to testify that Agnes Reeves fought against Mandingos and that her husband killed Mandingos. There were numerous other people that Background 1 had asked to provide fake testimonies against Agnes Reeves, the witness gave some of their names to the court.
L1 recalled Alan White sending him links to articles in the WhatsApp messages, which he had sent over to the police. He could not remember what the articles said. He stated that he had not been in contact with Alan White in the last year, as he had been living in the bush. The witness had not read the articles that Alan White had sent him and nobody had told him about their contents. He could tell they were about Background 1, because he had opened the links, had seen Background 1’s picture and could spell his name.
The witness did not know when Jungle Jabbah’s appeal was rejected in the United States. When he had the meeting with Background 1, Jabbah had been sentenced and Background 1 told him that he would attempt to appeal.
The recording of witness Z1 is viewed
Next, the court viewed the video recording of witness Z1’s testimony before the lower court.