Gibril Ealoghima Massaquoi, a well known warlord of the Sierra Leone civil war has been charged by Finnish prosecutors with war crimes and crimes against humanity thought to have been perpetrated in Liberia in the 1990s.
Massaquoi was one of the leaders of Sierra Leone’s rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and was widely reported to have taken active part in the killing of unarmed civilians and disarmed soldiers during the Liberian civil war.
RUF rebels were also active in Liberia where Massaquoi was involved in recruiting child soldiers, an alleged offense which is also one of the charged levelled against him by Finnish prosecutors.
Massaquoi who has been living in Finland since 2010, has denied all the charges.
WN/as/APA