BRUSSELS: Belgian authorities have arrested a female former commander in the rebel movement of Liberia's one-time president Charles Taylor and charged her with war crimes, officials said Thursday.
Martina Johnson is believed to be the first person charged for crimes committed during the country's first civil war, said a legal group acting for victims of the conflict. She was arrested near the city of Ghent on Wednesday "and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor in Brussels said.
Her arrest followed a complaint filed by a Belgian lawyer on behalf of three Liberian victims in 2012, said Civitas Maximas, a Geneva-based advocacy group. She is open to prosecution in Belgium as a resident of that country, accused of crimes under international law. The victims accused her of involvement in "mutilation and mass killing" during Operation Octopus, a military assault by Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia on the capital Monrovia in 1992.
"This landmark case marks the very first time an alleged Liberian perpetrator has been criminally charged for crimes under international law committed in Liberia during the first civil war," Civitas Maximas said.
Former Liberian rebel leader charged with war crimes
Former Liberian rebel leader charged with war crimes
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
