Paris, France: In a court order issued on June 25, 2024, the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest judicial body, ruled that Kunti Kamara’s pourvoi en cassation had lapsed after failing to meet the legal deadline for submitting his legal argument memo.
The pourvoi en cassation is an exceptional legal remedy in which the facts are not re-examined. In fact, the Cour de Cassation verifies the legal conformity of appeal courts’ rulings and some first-instance judgments, without retrying the case.
Three months earlier, on March 27, 2024, the Paris “Cour d’assises” affirmed the first instance ruling. Kunti Kamara was found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity and in the commission of simple and aggravated acts of torture and barbarism. The Court sentenced him to 30 years of imprisonment. On the same day, Mr. Kamara, through his lawyer Ms. Secci, lodged a pourvoi en casssation to contest this decision.
The June 25, 2024, order thus puts an end to the proceedings against Kunti Kamara. With no further means of appeal available to the parties, the Paris “Cour d’assises” decision becomes final.
To our knowledge, this is the first time since the Second World War and the Rwandan genocide cases that a court has identified the element of a concerted plan in the commission of crimes against humanity. The appeal court decision is also the first conviction of a Liberian fighter for crimes against humanity linked to the first Liberian war (1989 – 1997). In addition, this ruling recognizes the sexual violence committed by members of ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy) in 1994 as crimes against humanity. In particular, the appeal court held that acts of rape and sexual torture had been committed on a massive and systematic scale, as part of a concerted plan to impose a policy of terror on the civilian population.
Civitas Maxima and the GJRP would like to thank once again Ms. Sabrina Delattre and Mr. Simon Foreman, legal counsels and lawyers for civil parties throughout the proceedings. We also reiterate our thanks to the French judiciary for providing such a forum for victims to be heard, and letting their stories finally be acknowledged. Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the people that had faith in us and made this trial possible, especially the civil parties and the witnesses.
Civitas Maxima has been publishing brief, daily summaries of the hearings that can be found here. A lengthier, and more detailed trial monitoring will be available on our website in the next coming months. Trial monitoring for the first instance proceedings can be found here.
