Image copyright Chase Walker/Civitas Maxima Image caption A sketch of "Jungle Jabbah", whose conviction has been lauded as a milestone for global justice

A Liberian warlord known as "Jungle Jabbah" has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the US for lying about his role in his country's civil war.

Mohammed Jabbateh was found guilty of immigration fraud for falsely telling US authorities in the 1990s that he had never belonged to an armed group.

One witness told the court how he had ordered the heart of a captive to be cooked for his fighters.

Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's brutal 14-year civil war.

Campaign group Amnesty International has welcomed the verdict as the "first case to provide some justice for victims of Liberia's civil war", even though he was not convicted of the atrocities he and his men allegedly carried out.

"It must not be forgotten that there has still been no accountability for these crimes in Liberia itself," said Amnesty's West Africa researcher Sabrina Mahtani.

"The Liberian authorities must urgently establish a criminal court to try crimes under international law and ensure those responsible are held to account."

The 51-year-old moved to the US in the late 1990s, living in Pennsylvania in a community in Philadelphia known as "Little Liberia" until his arrest in April 2016.

The trial was told how he had been a commander in two armed groups - the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (Ulimo) and later the Ulimo-K - during fierce fighting in the early 1990s.

Witnesses were flown over from Liberia to give testimony about the allegations of killings, rapes, mutilations and cannibalism committed by him or by fighters under his command.

In total there were three accounts of hearts being removed, including how the wife of a town chief was told to cook the heart of a murdered villager and then one of her own husband, a US Department of Justice statement said.

Liberia's civil war

Image copyright AFP

Liberia, founded as a haven for freed US slaves, endured two bouts of brutal fighting in 1989-1996 and 1999-2003

Some 250,000 people were killed

Thousands more were mutilated and raped, often by armies of drugged child soldiers led by ruthless warlords

Regional peacekeepers intervened twice to end the fighting.

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US prosecutor William McSwain said: "This man is responsible for atrocities that will ripple for generations in Liberia. He thought he could hide here but thanks to the determination and creativity of our prosecutors and investigators, he couldn't.

"This prosecution was our only option under the law and his sentence achieves at least some measure of justice for his victims."

According to Civitas Maxima, a Swiss organisation that works to ensure justice for victims of war crimes, many suspects still hold powerful positions in Liberia.

Liberian campaigner Hassan Bility says Jabbateh's conviction shows Liberian victims want to be heard.

"Our post-war politicians have not listened to the victims' cries. This will have to change.

"Our hope still remains to see these trials take place in Liberia, so victims of war crimes from all over the country can witness the proceedings."</s>Liberia ex-warlord ‘Jungle Jabbah’ jailed for 30 years in US

New York, United States | AFP | A Liberian former warlord whose forces committed atrocities including murders and cannibalism during the country’s civil war was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in US prison — for immigration-related fraud and perjury.

Nicknamed “Jungle Jabbah,” 51-year-old Mohammed Jabateh commanded the “United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy” (ULIMO) and later ULIMO-K rebel groups, which engaged in killings, rapes, multilation and cannibalism during Liberia’s 1989-2003 civil war, according to prosecutors.

It is not the atrocities that will send the former warlord to prison, but rather lying about his past to American authorities as part of his 1998 asylum application and his subsequent bid for permanent residency, which saw him convicted in October of “two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury.”

Prosecutors did, however, summon 17 Liberians to testify during the trial about the actions of Jabateh and his men, which allegedly included killing a village leader and bringing his heart to his wife with orders for her to cook it for them.

“This defendant committed acts of such violence and depravity that they are almost beyond belief,” US Attorney William McSwain said in a statement.

“This man is responsible for atrocities that will ripple for generations in Liberia. He thought he could hide here but thanks to the determination and creativity of our prosecutors and investigators, he couldn’t,” McSwain said.

“This prosecution was our only option under the law and his sentence achieves at least some measure of justice for his victims,” he said.

The fact that Jabateh is being held responsible at all is exceptional, as many people involved in the civil war still hold important positions in Liberia.

The establishment of a court for war criminals involved in the conflict, which left about 250,000 people dead, is an extremely sensitive topic.

Fearing for his safety, BBC journalist Jonathan Paye-Layleh recently decided to leave the country after a question about the subject prompted an angry response from Liberian President George Weah.

Journalist Hassan Bility, head of the Global Justice and Research Project, which works to document war crimes and see those responsible brought to justice, said Jabateh’s sentencing was “a happy day” for the victims of atrocities in Liberia.

Now it is up to “the Liberian government to make sure other perpetrators are brought to court. We have been pushing for all perpetrators in the Liberian civil war to have their days in court, but the Liberian government has not yet had the courage to do so,” Bility said Thursday.

“We will continue to push for that until the government can bring the perpetrators to account for what they did during the war,” he said.

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This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>A United States court has sentenced former Liberian warlord known as “Jungle Jabbah” to 30 years in prison for gaining U.S asylum by lying about his role in the civil war in his homeland and atrocities he committed, prosecutors said on Friday. Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, who has lived in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, since the late 1990s, was found guilty in October on two count charge of fraud in immigration documents and two count charge of perjury, Reuters reported.

During the height of Liberia’s first civil war from 1992 to 1995, Jabbateh, while serving as commander of a warring group, either personally committed or ordered acts such as rapes, ritual cannibalism, mutilation, murder and the use of child soldiers, according to prosecutors. An attorney for Jabbateh, Greg Pagano of Philadelphia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said while applying for asylum in December 1998, Jabbateh was not truthful about his membership in the group known as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), and later ULIMO-K, rebel groups that battled for control of Liberia. Two dozen witnesses, including 17 Liberian victims, testified in the trial. According to testimony, in one instance Jabbateh ordered that the heart of a captive be cooked and fed to his fighters.

In another, fighters under his command murdered a villager, removed his heart and ordered the town chief’s wife to cook it. Jabbateh later had the town chief himself murdered and ordered his widow to cook her husband’s heart. During the trial Pagano said Jabbateh had been framed by accusers who were desperate to blame anyone they could for atrocities committed during the civil war.</s>Liberian Ex- Warlord ‘Jungle Jabbah’ Jails For 30 Years In US

A U.S. court has sentenced former Liberian warlord known as “Jungle Jabbah” to 30 years in prison for gaining U.S. asylum by lying about his role in the civil war in his homeland and atrocities he committed, prosecutors said on Friday.

Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, who has lived in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, since the late 1990s, was found guilty

 in October on two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury.

During the height of Liberia’s first civil war from 1992 to 1995, Jabbateh, while serving as commander of a warring group, either personally committed or ordered acts such as rapes, ritual cannibalism, mutilation, murder and the use of child soldiers, according to prosecutors.

An attorney for Jabbateh, Greg Pagano of Philadelphia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said while applying for asylum in December 1998, Jabbateh was not truthful about his membership in the group known as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), and later ULIMO-K, rebel groups that battled for control of Liberia.

Two dozen witnesses, including 17 Liberian victims, testified in the trial.

According to testimony, in one instance Jabbateh ordered that the heart of a captive be cooked and fed to his fighters. In another, fighters under his command murdered a villager, removed his heart and ordered the town chief’s wife to cook it.

Jabbateh later had the town chief himself murdered and ordered his widow to cook her husband’s heart.

During Jabbateh’s trial Pagano said Jabbateh had been framed by accusers who were desperate to blame anyone they could for atrocities committed during the civil war.

“These are tall tales of enemies settling old scores – not because they had personal experiences with him but because of what group he’s identified with,” Pagano said at the trial, according to a posting on his website.

“There is no greater motive than revenge.”

The case was investigated by special agents of Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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This post was syndicated from Nigerian Pilot News. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>Liberian War Criminal Sentenced to 30 Years in US prison

“Pressure is mounting on Liberian President George Weah to hold a war crimes court.”

The post Liberian War Criminal Sentenced to 30 Years in US prison appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

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This post was syndicated from Premium Times Nigeria. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>They had terrifying names like “General Cobra Red”, “Bad Blood DeJangle” and “Bullet Vest” and committed horrific crimes during the early days of Liberia’s civil war. In a milestone ruling Thursday, a judge in Philadelphia ordered their leader, Mohammed Jabbateh, AKA “Jungle Jabbah”, to spend 30 years in a US prison for those crimes.

Mr. Jabbateh, now 51, has become the first Liberian to be tried and convicted for crimes committed during Liberia’s civil war. Previous president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf rejected the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report that more than 90 combatants be tried.

In this case Mr. Jabbateh was prosecuted for immigration fraud – lying to US immigration officials when he applied for asylum here in 1998 among thousands of other refugees fleeing the war. He could have received as little as time served but the judge gave him the maximum sentence in recognition of the egregious nature of the crimes.

“Today’s verdict means victory for Liberia, not only for the victims,” said Hassan Bility, a long time justice campaigner whose Global Justice Research Project together with Civitas Maxima helped prosecutors gather evidence for the trial.

“It means the time is gone when people hid themselves from justice; the time is gone when people discouraged victims and witnesses from stepping forward and telling their stories.”

It is the longest sentence ever given in a US court for criminal immigration fraud. Judge Paul S. Diamond, said Mr. Jabbateh’s crimes including systemic rape, murder, slavery, torture, use of child soliders, genocide and cannibalism were so extreme “it was difficult to believe anyone could be capable of committing those acts.”

In recognition of those crimes the judge imposed the maximum crime possible under the law. He stressed that he was giving Mr. Jabbateh the maximum not because of his war crimes but because in lying about them to US immigration officials he violated US law in the most extreme way possible.

In his statement US Assistant District Attorney Nelson Thayer urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence saying that Mr. Jabbateh had entered the country as a “wolf” clothed in the sheep’s clothing of refugee. He said a strong sentence was needed to show Americans and the Liberian diaspora that this is a country of laws and those who violate them will be prosecuted.

“If he does not deserve the maximum,” Thayer asked “Who does?” In an interview after the sentence hearing Thayer paid credit to the 17 Liberian witnesses who had come from Liberia to the court to testify against Jabbateh. “They are real heroes,” he said.

“We both immediately thought of the victims,” said Mr. Thayer. “They can go to sleep tonight knowing that Mohammed Jabbateh will not be coming back to Liberia. In all likelihood he will die in this country and he will not be running for office. He will not be coming back to be embraced by his supporters. He will die in a federal prison.”

Outside the court, Mr. Jabbateh’s family and friends were angry. His 19-year-old son, who a family friend said was planning to enlist in the US army in two months, supported Mr. Jabbateh’s sister who was crying. They refused to talk to the media.

A supporter, Alphonso Seke-Horton, told reporters the sentence was unfair and a political act designed to frame Mr. Jabbateh. He said Mr. Jabbateh was only acting in defense of his people when he commited the acts.

Mr. Jabbateh’s lawyer Greg Pagano said Jabbateh would appeal the decision.

Mr Jabbateh was found guilty on four-counts of U.S. immigration fraud and perjury charges – all linked to atrocities he committed nearly three decades ago in Liberia when he was commander of the Zebra Battalion in the militia known as ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy), in Western Liberia operating from 1990-1994.

ULIMO was one of the many warring factions that fought Charles Taylor’s NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) during Liberia’s first civil war (1989-1996). In the areas that lived under Mr. Jabbah’s terror there was joy at the outcome.

“Ye, he is supposed to go to jail. 30 years is even small,” said John Wanner, 49. “Me I see Jungle Jabbah, I was not a small boy at that time. Here in Lofa Bridge when they kill somebody he takes of their heart to cook pepper soup and eat it.”

“Whenever soldiers under his commend complain of hunger he will ask for all the prisoners to get out,” said Town Chief Momoh FenSeh, 60. “He like the fair skin people. Whether you are a woman or man as long as your skin is fair he referred to you is hog (pig) meat. We are satisfying with that 30 years, for somebody to kill people like chicken and be walking free it is not fine.”

The response was the same in the Gbarpolu area where a bridge is still known as “Jungle Jabbah” bridge after Mr. Jabbateh forced the local community to build the bridge to allow him to transport goods stolen from a logging company and then tortured the local community after the bridge collapsed.

“Let him be there. Let them put him in jail. Jungle Jabbah did a lot of things here. Let him be in jail,” said Joseph Ballah, 78, a resident of Gbarqueta, in the county of Gbarpolu.

“He ran away from here to America, taking himself to be a good person. Let him bear the penalty.”

“When they said ‘Jungle Jabbah [is] coming’, nobody would remain in this town,” said George Massaquoi, now 51. “Everybody used to jump in the bush. I was afraid to even lay eyes on him. I really feel happy because those are the people who tortured our people here.”

In order to prove that Mr. Jabbateh provided false information to U.S. immigration authorities and procured asylum in the United States by fraud, the prosecution first had to establish that he was a high-ranking rebel commander during the first Liberian civil war and committed criminal actions while in that position.

The U.S. District Attorney’s office flew in 17 victims from Liberia to testify. During the three-week trial, witnesses recounted brutalities committed at the hands of Mr. Jabbateh and his rebels, including cannibalism, mutilations, rapes and slave labor in and around Liberia’s diamond-rich western region, where they said that Jabbateh brutalized villagers while he was building an empire with looted diamonds and other natural resources.

Jury members wept as an elderly widow of a village chief recalled how Mr. Jabbateh had ordered her husband be murdered by having his heart cut out.

“They brought his heart to me to cook,” she told the visibly shocked jurors. “Make yourself strong ma,” she remembered a young rebel saying as he urged her to build a fire. “If you don’t, he’ll kill us both.”

Another juror told how Mr. Jabbateh’s rebels had lined up all the men in the village and identified two men they said were Krahn (Jabbah’s rival ethnic tribe). “They cut off their ears and then ordered us to clap,” recalled the witness.

Mr. Jabbah, now 51, and father of 10, was operating a shipping outlet in Southwest Philadelphia when he was picked up by U.S. Marshals on April 23, 2016 and charged with lying about his brutal past, when he sought asylum in the U.S. in 1998.

Mr. Jabateh’s trial is the first case in a new legal push for the prosecution of Liberians who are known to have committed war crimes during the country’s plunge into bloody civil conflicts that intermittently ran for nearly 20 years.

The push has been led by the Global Justice and Research Project in collaboration with the international lawyers and investigators of Switzerland-based Civitas Maxima. The campaign is running under the banner #Quest4Liberia. The trials of Thomas Woewiyu, Charles Taylor’s Defense Minister in Philadelphia and Agnes Taylor, Charles Taylor’s ex-wife in the UK will begin later this year. Two other combatants are facing trial in Belgium and Switzerland.

Pressure is mounting on President George Weah to hold a war crimes court. In a big change in their position the Liberian Council of Churches recently called on the president to hold a trial. In a visit to Liberia in March, UN Deputy General Amina Mohammed also called on the president to hold a trial.

So far President Weah, who said a trial was necessary in 2004, has refused to discuss a trial since he became president in January. When asked about it by the BBC’s reporter in Liberia, Mr. Weah ignored the question and made unsubstantiated accusations about the reporter’s bias against him. The reporter has since fled the country in fear of retaliation from Mr. Weah’s supporters. Mr. Weah has appointed several people accused of war crimes to his government.

But speaking in Philadelphia on Monday, Lenn Eugene Nagbe, Weah’s Information Minister, said the government is working on a plan that “takes into account the country’s fragility, reconciliation and possible prosecution while maintaining peace.”

The pressure will only intensify as trials continue.

“This sentence should come as a wake-up call for the Liberian government,” said Alain Werner, Director of Civitas Maxima. “Victims will be relentless in their quest for justice. They want to be heard and they will be heard. The George Weah administration should listen to them now, take steps towards establishing war crimes courts in Liberia.”

Mr. Woewiyu’s trial will begin in Philadelphia on June 11.

This story was a collaboration between Front Page Africa and New Narratives. Jackson Kanneh reported from Philadelphia. Tecee Boley was in Lofa Bridge, Liberia and James Harding Giahyue was at “Jungle Jabbah” Bridge in Gbarpolu, Liberia.</s>A Liberian man convicted of lying about his past as a rebel commander so he could enter the U.S. has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

In October, 51-year-old Mohammed Jabbateh was found guilty in Philadelphia of immigration fraud and perjury for deceiving officials about his role during the Liberian civil war in the 1990s.

His trial involved testimony from witnesses who said he or his soldiers killed civilians, raped women and engaged in cannibalism. He was known during the war as Jungle Jabbah.

In sentencing Jabbateh Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond said those accusations factored into his decision to veer from the federal sentencing guidelines for perjury and fraud.

Diamond says the recommended 15 to 21 months would be "outrageously offensive."</s>April 19 (Reuters) - A former Liberian warlord known as "Jungle Jabbah" was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday for gaining U.S. asylum by lying about his role in the civil war in his homeland and atrocities he committed, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, who has lived in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, since the late 1990s, was found guilty in October on two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury.

During the height of Liberia´s first civil war from 1992 to 1995, Jabbateh, while serving as commander of a warring group, either personally committed or ordered acts such as rapes, ritual cannibalism, mutilation, murder and the use of child soldiers, according to prosecutors.

An attorney for Jabbateh, Greg Pagano of Philadelphia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While applying for asylum in December 1998, and then for permanent legal residency later on, Jabbateh was not truthful about his membership in the group known as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), and later ULIMO-K, rebel groups that battled for control of Liberia, prosecutors said.

Two dozen witnesses, including 17 Liberian victims, testified in the trial. According to testimony, in one instance Jabbateh ordered that the heart of a captive be cooked and fed to his fighters. In another, fighters under his command murdered a villager, removed his heart and ordered the town chief´s wife to cook it. Jabbateh later had the town chief himself murdered and ordered his widow to cook her husband´s heart.

During Jabbateh's trial Pagano said Jabbateh had been framed by accusers who were desperate to blame anyone they could for atrocities committed during the civil war.

"These are tall tales of enemies settling old scores - not because they had personal experiences with him but because of what group he´s identified with," Pagano said at the trial, according to a posting on his website. "There is no greater motive than revenge."

The case was investigated by special agents of Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Reporting by Andrew Hay Editing by Tom Brown)</s>A former Liberian warlord known as “Jungle Jabbah” has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in a groundbreaking judgment by a US court for lying about his role in Liberia’ civil war and the atrocities he committed.

Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, who has lived in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, for 20 years, was found guilty in October on two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury and sentenced on Thursday.

The judge in the case imposed a heavy jail sentence because of the nature of the crimes that Jabbateh had sought to hide.

While serving as commander of an armed group during the height of Liberia’s first civil war, which lasted much of the 1990s, Jabbateh either personally committed or ordered acts such as rapes, ritual cannibalism, mutilation, murder and the use of child soldiers, prosecutors said. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the conflict which devastated the country.

The judgment is an important precedent that could lead to much longer sentences for other similar offenders in the future and will help international efforts to bring war criminals to justice, activists said.

The decision prompted jubilation and celebration among Jabbateh’s victims in Liberia.

“It was very special for them. There is such impunity in Liberia for perpetrators of very serious crimes that this was very empowering,” said Alain Werner, the director of Civitas-Maxima, a network of international lawyers which assisted prosecutors in the Jabbateh case.

Jabbateh arrived in the US and applied for asylum in December 1998, as hostilities ended. A businessman living quietly with his family, he obtained permanent legal residency some years later.

Prosecutors said he lied to immigration officials about his membership of United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and later ULIMO-K, rebel groups that battled for control of Liberia, and had lied about his involvement in violence.

The indictment of Jabbateh describes how rebel groups typically operated by attacking a village with looting potential and subjecting residents to brutal violence, including torture, rape, and ritualised cannibalism.

Two dozen witnesses, including 17 Liberian victims who were flown over from the west African country, gave evidence in the trial.

According to testimony, Jabbateh ordered the heart of a captive be cooked and fed to his fighters. In another, armed men under his command murdered a villager, removed his heart and ordered the wife of the village chief to cook it. Jabbateh later had the chief murdered and ordered his widow to cook her husband’s heart.

Trial defence lawyers told the court said Jabbateh had been framed by accusers who recounted “tall tales of enemies settling old scores, not because they had personal experiences with him but because of what group he’s identified with”.

Werner said: “It was a remarkable trial. The victims testified and told the story of Jabbateh’s crimes. It was really horrific what he did. It was very clear these people had no reason to lie.”

The sentence is the most severe yet imposed in such cases. It is unclear how long Jabbateh will spend in US prisons before being deported.

Authorities in the US have been criticised by activists and human rights lawyers for failing to take seriously war crimes committed by individuals now living in thecountry.

There are almost 2,000 individuals in the US under investigation for involvement in human rights abuses but only a handful of arrests are made each year.</s>A Delaware County man convicted of hiding his past as the murderous Liberian warlord “Jungle Jabbah” when he immigrated to the United States two decades ago was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison.

Mohammed Jabateh, a 51-year-old father of five who owns a Philadelphia-based international shipping business, is the first person ever incarcerated for crimes connected to the numerous documented atrocities that occurred during Liberia’s first protracted, multifaction civil war, which ravaged the West African nation between 1989 and 1997.

Until Jabateh’s trial on immigration fraud charges last fall in Philadelphia, no one had been prosecuted in connection with the conflict that left more than 250,000 dead and a generation of survivors both in Liberia and in Philadelphia’s sizable expat community clamoring for justice.

Though Jabateh was not specifically tried in October for any of the dozens of acts of murder, rape, enslavement, and cannibalism that prosecutors attributed to him, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond explained that those deeds factored heavily into his decision to dramatically depart from federal sentencing guidelines on the acts of perjury and immigration fraud of which Jabateh had been convicted.

In handing down the sentence Thursday, Diamond said that the sentence suggested by the federal sentencing guidelines – 15 to 21 months – would not only be “unreasonable but outrageously offensive, in light of the testimony presented here in court.”

“I want to be clear,” Diamond cautioned. “I am departing not based on the horror of the atrocities the defendant committed abroad. Rather, I am departing based on the egregiousness of his lies … and their effect on our asylum laws and the immigration system.

For his part, Jabateh said nothing throughout the hearing, staring blankly ahead as prosecutors ticked off a list of his horrific past deeds.

When it came time to address the judge, he leaned forward slightly and spoke softly into the microphone: “Your honor, sir, I have nothing to say.”

None of the 17 Liberians whom the U.S. Justice Department flew in from Africa to testify against Jabateh last fall attended Thursday’s proceedings. But their presence was keenly felt.

Assistant U.S. Nelson Thayer ticked off the frightful experiences each testified they underwent at Jabateh’s hands, and he urged Diamond to impose the maximum sentence allowed.

“When one tries to describe the atrocities – the horror and the terror and the brutality committed by Mohammed Jabateh – it’s tempting to resort to phrases like ‘indescribable,’” Thayer said. “But we know that Mohammed Jabateh’s shocking atrocities can be described… . We heard them because of the incredible courage of those Liberian witnesses.”

When asked at trial to identify the man responsible for their torment, each of those witnesses offered the same answer, identifying Jabateh by his nom de guerre, “Jungle Jabbah.”

One woman testified she had been captured and turned into a sex slave at 13, only to be raped daily for weeks until she managed to escape. A farmer from Liberia’s northwest mining country detailed how he had been forced into slavery and ordered to dig for diamonds on threat of death, to fund Jabateh’s war effort.

And in perhaps the most wrenching testimony of the trial, the wife of a village chieftain alleged that Jabateh’s soldiers killed her husband and then delivered his heart to her on a platter with orders to cook it for Jabateh and his men.

That sense of unanswered grievance hung over the case from the day in March 2016 when federal agents arrested Jabateh at his East Lansdowne home. Coverage in Liberian newspapers described the case in totemic terms that extended far beyond Jabateh and the crimes he committed, wondering if it might signal an end to the impunity the nation’s war criminals had enjoyed for so many years.

The nation’s former president, Charles Taylor, was convicted of war crimes by an international court in 2012 – but for actions tied to a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. It took a U.S. court to sentence his son – known as “Chuckie” Taylor – to prison in 2009 for his own barbaric behavior in a second civil war that roiled Liberia between 1999 and 2003.

Some former rebel leaders now hold positions of power within the government in Monrovia, and the ethnic divisions that fueled the wars still divide Liberians — even among the estimated 15,000 now living in the Philadelphia region.

Jabateh maintained that he, too, was a victim — of Taylor’s autocratic regime. After fleeing to the United States in 1997, he sought and obtained political asylum, claiming that he had been imprisoned and tortured by the president’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).

But in a series of recent cases — including two others against Philadelphia-area residents — the U.S. Justice Department has trumpeted its own commitment to tracking down and expelling West African war criminals now living in this country.

In addition to his prison term, Jabateh was ordered to serve three years’ probation upon his release. He almost certainly would be deported after finishing his sentence.
Liberian warlord Mohammed "Jungle Jabbah" Jabbateh is sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States for immigration offences. Jabbateh lied to authorities about his role in the Liberian Civil War.