May 23, 2023 [Finland] Day 54: The Court returns to Turku, Finland
The recording of Witness Y9’s police interview is played
As Y9 was unable to appear in court, the court decided that his witness testimony could be received by watching the recording of his police interview. The recording was played in court.
Y9 stated that he joined the army in 1998 when there was the coup. The AFRC called the RUF to join them in Freetown. They were removed from Freetown by ECOMOG troops and they left for Kono. Johnny Paul went to Kailahun. Y9’s base was in Kono, they went from there to Gabala and then to Northern Sierra Leone. After being pushed out of Freetown, they went to the West Side, they had a base there. They left Freetown on 6 January 1999 when ECOMOG pushed them out. They remained in West Side until the ceasefire. Gibril Massaquoi and others came to see them, he and others had been sent by Foday Sankoh to talk with the West Side Boys. According to Y9, Gibril Massaquoi was heavily armed, so they disarmed him before they could talk. Then, they began to talk about peace on the West Side.
Y9’s group had issues with the Lomé peace agreement. Their leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, was arrested in Kailahun and they were not called to Lomé despite them being a part of the fighting. For this reason, they decided to arrest the UNAMSIL peacekeepers. Foday Sankoh had already sent Gibril Massaquoi before that to discuss what they could do for the Lomé peace agreement. Until the ceasefire entered into force, the West Side Boys held some ECOMOG troops.
One of the reasons why the West Side Boys came to Liberia was for the release of Johnny Paul Koroma, they met him in Liberia. They also wanted to have the chairmanship of the CCP peace consolidation. The government and the army were against this. In June 2000, the RUF split up in Makeni and went towards Freetown. There was a large battle and the West Side Boys managed to stop the RUF, they ambushed their convoy. Y9 came to Freetown and wanted to join Johnny Paul Koroma there, but he was arrested and detained without charges until he was released in 2004.
In 2003, while Y9 was in prison, the Special Court for Sierra Leone contacted him and asked him questions about the war, 1999, and the 6 January attack. They began to take his statements and contacted him in relation to the AFRC and RUF trials. Y9 was placed in a safe house during the AFRC, RUF and Charles Taylor trials. He testified in the AFRC and RUF trials. At one point, he was contacted and asked to deny his statements. He reported the matter, which was investigated, and the people trying to get him to deny his statements were convicted.
In the RUF trial, his testimony concerned the cooperation between the RUF and the AFRC in Freetown, where they received supplies from and how the RUF was organized. He also testified about the RUF’s command structure. According to Y9, Gibril Massaquoi was part of a team that came to Freetown to talk with AFRC when they had seized power. He was later suspected of conspiring against the AFRC and was arrested. When the West Side Boys, Y9 included, came to Freetown, they released him from Pademba Road Prison. Gibril Massaquoi was a senior commander. He led the troops to the West Side. Y9 described him as a very smart man and mercenary, he was used for his knowledge and education to gain control of situations. He was the mastermind behind many situations, even when Y9 came out of the safe house. He was a mastermind in relation to witness management when he left for Finland. There were guards that had been assigned to Gibril Massaquoi and it was said that they would attack him. This incident, an attack against him, was intentionally kept confidential by the leadership of the Special Court, and it was decided that he should be relocated.
When Y9 was released from prison in 2004, he stayed home for a bit before he was placed in a safe house during the trials. At the time, Gibril was in a safe house behind the stadium, in Congo Cross. Y9 never visited him at the safe house, he only walked past it.
Y9 stated that he was free to leave his safe house as he pleased. There were a lot of instances of mismanagement and various challenges related to the safe house. Y9 mentioned manipulation and the intentional placement of security guards to safe houses. The Special Court did not want to increase the attention or importance of some things, which led to Massaquoi being relocated. The head of the Witness Management was opposed to the present trial and “did not want to see Gibril Massaquoi being exploited.” He had told the witness to be careful about his testimony and had asked him what he was going to testify about. Y9 was told not to say anything that would ruin the Special Court’s reputation as they were still looking after him. He speculated that something that may tarnish their reputation was the fact that people staying in the safe houses could leave whenever they pleased.
The witness told the Finnish police that his safe house had a logbook. The guards would come in and sign the logbook and, most of the time, they would then leave. They would sometimes tell him that they wanted to take care of personal business before coming in to work. He always let them, they would come in, write their names in the logbook and leave. Y9 knew that Massaquoi had armed guards at his safe house. Y9 also had armed guards after Taylor’s trial. They were supposed to be present 24 hours a day, but there were still a lot of lapses, not enough surveillance. He never saw the head of the security guards, as he had been “compromised.” After Taylor’s trial, he was supposed to have guards 24/7, but they were coming and going as they pleased, just like with the regular guards and the logbook.
Y9 had heard about the attack on Gibril Massaquoi at the safe house. He had heard that someone wanted to assassinate him so that he wouldn’t say anything. The attack was orchestrated and Gibril Massaquoi was relocated.
The witness confirmed that he was arrested in June 2000. He received information in prison about the RUF’s activities, such as Superman crossing the border into Liberia. He had heard that Gibril Massaquoi had also gone to Liberia and then to Guinea. In 1998-1999, Y9 had been a fighter. He described that houses were burned down, and people had their limbs amputated with cutlasses. When Gibril Massaquoi was released from prison in 1999, he was with the RUF.
Next, Y9 explained his relationship with the Special Court. He was contacted and told that they would need to talk face to face. He went to the Special Court’s office and spoke with different people there. He told them that there were issues with the security arrangements at the safe house, that the security at the safe houses was compromised. In 2007, when Y9 was a protected witness, he had gone to Kailahun in 2007 without the court ever knowing about it. At the time, there were a lot of tensions in Freetown. Y9 decided to test what would happen if an ex-fighter left Freetown, so he went to Kailahun. According to him, the Special Court never knew that he had travelled there. The office that paid his allowance would close on Friday, so he told them that he would come on Saturday and the matter was not looked into until Monday. He could do whatever he wanted in the meantime. Y9 had heard about a person losing their weapon in connection with Gibril Massaquoi. The Special Court did not want to address it. He explained that a weapon going missing was very alarming. He testified that from his understanding, this was arranged by Gibril Massaquoi.
Y9 could not say that the Special Court was aware of Gibril’s role in Liberia. They were more focused on the AFRC and RUF trials. He speculated that Gibril was chosen as a witness as there were not many people willing to cooperate with the Special Court.
Witness H4 is heard
The court heard H4 through video link from the Netherlands.
The defense questions H4
The defense began by asking H4 how she had gotten to know Gibril Massaquoi. The witness testified that he was her former boss, she used to cook for him from March 2003. She worked until September, when she went on maternity leave. She returned in January 2004 and worked for a few months until he was relocated to a different safe house. She worked in 7 Pipeline, near Wilkinson Road, at the safe house where he lived with his family. H4 worked for the Special Court. She worked from Monday to Saturday, from nine to five. She saw Massaquoi every day. H4 listed the people that lived at the house with him.
When H4 came back to work in January 2004, it was at a different safe house. This one was located at the Jomo Kenyatta Road, opposite to the Special Court. She worked there for a few months, four to five months, until Massaquoi was moved to another safe house. H4 worked in only two of the safe houses, in Pipeline and on Jomo Kenyatta Road. She explained that if Massaquoi had to leave the safe house on Pipeline, he wouldn’t go out alone. The security guards came with him and acted as his driver. The security guards worked from morning to afternoon, when there was another shift that worked until night. H4 named a few of the security guards, including Defense 08, H6, and Z3. Besides them and H4, there were no other staff members at the Pipeline safe house. The security guards were always present at the safe house, there were 2, 3, 4 guards there at the same time. People could not access the house freely. There was a gate and a guard at the gate, and no way for anyone to get in or out.
H4 explained that Massaquoi left the safe house whenever he had an appointment somewhere, with the doctor or a meeting at the Special Court. He always left with a security guard. He did not have appointments every day, but she could not say how often he would leave for these appointments. He was never gone for more than two hours at a time. The witness was not sure whether Massaquoi had stayed the night outside the safe house, but she always saw him in the mornings when she went to work. They had no visitors at the safe house in 2003.
The prosecution questions H4
The prosecution began by asking H4 when she had begun working at the safe house. She confirmed that she worked from March to September 2003, but she could not remember the exact dates. She worked until the end of September and gave birth to her son on 24 October 2003. She had her son’s birth certificate with her and presented the document from her phone to the court. The document showed that the child was born on 24 October 2003 in Freetown and had been registered on 23 July 2008 in Freetown. The document had been issued and signed the same day, 23 July 2008. H4 explained that she had come to the Netherlands in 2007 and wanted her children to visit her. In order for them to get a passport in Sierra Leone, they had to get a birth certificate. H4’s husband went to the hospital and they issued the birth certificates for her children. H4 speculated that her husband had told the hospital the date of birth and names of her son and daughter.
The witness testified that she was the only cook working in 2003. Another cook started working in 2004, but they did not work for Mr. Gibril. She had told the Dutch police that she was the main cook. She explained that there were three cooks besides her, but she was the main cook. She named another person, who was a helper, so they were four in total making food at the Special Court in 2004. She worked there until 2007. At Brookfields Hotel, there was a large kitchen where they cooked. She didn’t work there in 2003, as it didn’t open until 2004. In 2003, she was working for Mr. Gibril at Pipeline. There was another safe house located at Hills Station. She had worked there as well, but she could not remember when. She had taken food to Hills Station but could not remember whether she had done so in 2003.
H4 testified that Massaquoi once left the safe house to go to the beach for a walk. She could not recall him and Elizabeth leaving the safe house together without the security guards. She repeated that nobody visited the safe house in 2003, not even Massaquoi’s friends or relatives. She could not remember whether Elizabeth left the safe house in 2003. H4 would go grocery shopping with Aunt Nancy. Besides shopping for groceries, she did not leave the safe house during her working hours. She worked downstairs, while Massaquoi and his family lived upstairs, but he liked to come downstairs and read newspapers. The family watched movies inside the house and the children played inside the fenced area to pass the time. Sometimes the wife would come to the kitchen and spend time with her or go to the other side to spend time with the security guards. The witness could not recall what Massaquoi would do to pass the time.
H4 knew H3, he worked at the safe house. They did not work at the same safe house in 2003. From March to September 2003, she worked at the safe house at the same time as Defense 08. They did not see each other every day, the security guards worked in shifts, Defense 08 was not there every day. The witness could not remember exactly when in 2003 Defense 08 worked at the safe house.
The safe house in Pipeline had only one gate and one door. The children did not go to school in 2003. She was not aware of the connection between Mr. Massaquoi and Michael Bona, but she saw him being brought to the safe house with the rest of the family. She could not remember Michael Bona having a particular assignment at the safe house. During the half a year she worked there in 2003, the only times she did not see Massaquoi at the house was on Sundays, as she did not work on that day. The security guards were three or two in total, with one of them by the door inside and one of them outside the house. If there were three of them, two would be outside.
The witness stopped working at Massaquoi’s safe house in 2004. After that, she saw him in 2004 or 2005 at another safe house. She saw him at the balcony from the car, they waved to each other. She had also been in contact with him since then, testifying that she spoke to his daughter last year. She had heard that he had won a case in Finland and had searched for his daughter on Facebook, asking to speak with him. H4 then talked with Gibril Massaquoi on the phone. She had heard from his daughter that he and Elizabeth had split up.
H4 had mentioned a name during her testimony. She was not sure of the first name of this person. She recalled one of the security guards losing his weapon during his shift at Massaquoi’s safe house. She did not know which security guard had lost his weapon, she was not at the house at the time, she was at the Special Court when a report about the incident came in. According to that report, the incident occurred in 2005.
Further questions from the defense
H4 further testified that they kept a logbook at the safe house. It was used by the guards to mark when someone was going in or out. She explained that when she called Massaquoi, he did not want to talk to her.
Further questions from the prosecution
When H4 began working at the safe house, Massaquoi had not yet arrived. He was brought in a week after she began working there, after they had set up the kitchen. She estimated that she began working in early March and stated that it is also possible that she began working on 16 April 2003.
Defense written evidence is presented
Finally, the defense presented a piece of written evidence. They had requested information from the Finnish police about the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports concerning the burning of houses. According to the police, the Commission had conducted over 1000 interviews in Lofa and at least 3900 in Montserrado, with no mention of Angel Gabriel or Gibril Massaquoi.
The prosecution pointed out that the TRC reports state that they are not exhaustive.
