Swiss Supreme Court Upholds Kosiah Liberia War Crimes Conviction and 20-Year Sentence

Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court on Friday, October 30, 2026 confirmed a guilty verdict against Liberian warlord Alieu Kosiah, upholding his 20 year sentence in the country's first ever war crimes trial, Reuters reported. The dismissal of his second appeal closes the case, and Civitas Maxima, the legal organisation that filed one of the original criminal complaints, said the conviction is now final in Switzerland.

The ruling did split one part of the case. The court reversed a parallel conviction for crimes against humanity because the law on that crime, introduced in 2011, cannot be applied retroactively to acts committed between 1993 and 1995. The reversal did not change his sentence, Reuters reported.

The case

Kosiah is a former commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy, known as ULIMO, which fought against Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia in the First Liberian Civil War, which ran from 1989 to 1996. He fought in the 1990s against then-president Charles Taylor's army during Liberia's civil war, Reuters reported.

After the war he moved to Switzerland, where he obtained permanent residency. Swiss authorities arrested him on November 10, 2014, Civitas Maxima said.

Swiss courts found that Kosiah ordered the killing of 13 civilians and 2 unarmed soldiers, murdered 4 civilians and raped a woman, Civitas Maxima said in its case record. The courts also found that he killed civilians, used a child soldier, raped someone and desecrated a body through cannibalism, SRF reported in coverage carried by Daily Alpine. He was originally sentenced in June 2021 for rape, murder and cannibalism, Reuters reported.

The case was brought under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Kosiah is the first Liberian national tried for war crimes related to the Liberian Civil War, and this was the first time the Swiss Federal Criminal Court held a trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Civitas Maxima said.

The road to Friday

On June 18, 2021 Kosiah was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with over 6 years of pre-trial detention deducted. On June 1, 2023, after 4 weeks of hearings between January and February 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court found him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and confirmed the maximum sentence of 20 years, Civitas Maxima said.

Friday's Supreme Court ruling keeps the war crimes conviction and the 20 year sentence in place. It removes the crimes against humanity conviction for the legal reason the court gave, that a law introduced in 2011 cannot reach back to acts in 1993 to 1995.

SRF reported that the decision could affect the case against former Gambian interior minister Ousman Sonko, whose appeal judgment is due on December 1, and said the court may have to reduce his sentence significantly because acts before 2011 cannot be considered under the crimes against humanity offence. That is a reported implication from SRF about a separate case. It is not a ruling on the Sonko case, and this article treats it only as that.