Two judgments and diplomatic cables are all that stand between freedom and 19 years in a Dutch prison for convicted war criminal Augustinus Kouwenhoven. The Dutch arms dealer, who smuggled weapons for Liberian strongman Charles Taylor’s regime during Sierra Leone’s bloody civil war, on Monday made a last-ditch effort to convince the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court not to admit the documents in his extradition trial. Kouwenhoven’s senior counsel, Anton Katz, argued that the diplomatic cables requesting the 76-year-old’s extradition and the accompanying judgments did not meet South African standards of evidentiary law. Dutch war criminal fights extradition in Cape Town magistrate’s courtCharles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in England for leading Sierra Leone into an apocalyptic hell of rape, cannibalism, pillage, and murder. Depending on her decision, the extradition hearing is expected to continue between January 16 and 20.

Source: GNN Liberia December 02, 2019 23:15 UTC