Kamara Defense Challenges Prosecution of 30-Year-Old Crimes - French... FPAfrica: Liberia
Two Liberian leads in the investigation - Luther Sumo, a Lofa prosecutor and Patrick Massaly, Deputy Police Commissioner - testified by video link from Monrovia. They both said that once they had the case material supplied by French investigators they set about finding alleged victims of Kamara in Foya in Lofa County, Liberia and witnesses to corroborate their stories.
Massaly said victims described being forced to carry looted goods as far as 15 miles. In another case recounted by multiple witnesses, Kamara is alleged to have personally gone into the house of one of the four plaintiffs in the case and dragged a half-naked ailing woman out and"shot her in the head right in the middle of the village," he said.
A female plaintiff described being sexually assaulted by Ulimo fighters. One raped her with a bayonet and when she began to bleed, poured salt onto the wounds before she was raped several more times she claimed.Massaly described Kamara chopping up body parts and putting them in a wheelbarrow and offering them for sale. People who refused to buy the meat were severely beaten.
The defense asked why there had been no exhumations of bodies, or DNA assessments among other forensic evidence. The Liberian law enforcement and French investigators explained the tremendous challenges in working in this remote part of Liberia that was decimated by the war. During the long war years there were no functioning hospitals, no birth certificates or death certificates were issued they explained. Local customs meant one person could go by several names.
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