Gibril Massaquoi (born in 1970) was a commander and a spokesperson for the notorious Sierra Leone rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which also fought in Liberia.
[2] He gave evidence to the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone set up to investigate war crimes committed in that conflict.
He was relocated to Finland in 2008 as part of a witness protection programme, which provided immunity for crimes committed in Sierra Leone, but not Liberia.
[3] Massaquoi's was regarded as unprecedented, as this was the first time that a top informer of an international tribunal was arrested and charged by a national court without the agreement of the institution with which he collaborated.
[9] In a historic first, the Court also travelled to Liberia and Sierra Leone in mid-February 2021 to hear testimony from up to 80 witnesses and visit sites where the atrocities were alleged to have been carried out under Massaquoi's orders.