The Southern Africa Litigation Centre has filed an application requesting the Western Cape High Court to cancel the visa of convicted arms trafficker and war criminal Guus Kouwenhoven.

Kouwenhoven, a 77-year-old Dutch national, has been resident in South Africa since December 2016 when he fled the Netherlands.

The centre said Kouwenhoven was convicted of arms trafficking in Liberia during the presidency of Charles Taylor.

In April 2017, Kouwenhoven was convicted by the Court of Appeal in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, of co-perpetrating the illegal supply of weapons to the regime of Taylor between 2001 to 2003, and of participating in war crimes committed by Liberian forces during 2000 to 2002.

He was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment.

The Dutch authorities then sought, from South African authorities, a warrant for his arrest, and he was arrested at his home in Bantry Bay, Cape Town, on December 8, 2017.

He was released on bail on December 19, 2017 and remains out on bail.

The centre’s director, Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, said as an individual who had been convicted of being complicit in war crimes as well as being a fugitive from justice, Kouwenhoven could not remain free and at large in South Africa.

Ramjathan-Keogh said Kouwenhoven led an extravagant care-free life in an upmarket Cape Town suburb and was unrepentant for the thousands of deaths and atrocities for which he was responsible.