Swiss supreme court upholds Liberian ex-rebel commander's 20-year sentence

Maximum custodial sentence

20 years

Alieu Kosiah, a former Liberian rebel commander, keeps the maximum 20-year sentence for war crimes committed between 1993 and 1995, during Liberia's first civil war.

What changed

The court cleared him of crimes against humanity, saying the offence, added to Swiss law in 2011, cannot apply to acts committed before then.

The ruling makes final the first war crimes conviction by a Swiss civilian court, according to the Swiss group Civitas Maxima. Switzerland can prosecute international crimes wherever they were committed.

Today the survivors of Alieu Kosiah's crimes have final justice.

— Alain Werner, director of Civitas Maxima