Mohammed Jabbateh, who has lived in Pennsylvania for 20 years, committed horrendous crimes during Liberia’s first civil war

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A former Liberian warlord known as “Jungle Jabbah” has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the US for lying about his role in Liberia’s 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 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 that he 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 to the US from the west African country, gave evidence in the trial.

According to testimony, Jabbateh ordered the heart of a captive to 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 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.