Guus Kouwenhoven
| Guus Kouwenhoven | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 15, 1942 Netherlands |
Guus Kouwenhoven (born September 15, 1942, Rotterdam) is a Dutch businessman who worked in Liberia during the presidency of Charles Taylor.
Trial
The United Nations issued an order in 2001 banning him from traveling because of arms trafficking. Kouwenhoven was arrested in the Netherlands on March 18, 2005 and stood trial at the Court of First Instance in The Hague, starting April 24, 2006. The court tried to summon Charles Taylor to testify against Kouwenhoven. Kouwenhoven was charged with arms smuggling and war crimes in Liberia in the 90s, for which the Dutch public prosecutors sought a 20-year jail sentence and a fine of €450,000 against Kouwenhoven. On June 7, 2006 Kouwenhoven was sentenced to 8 years in jail for arms smuggling. The court did not find him to be guilty of war crimes. Both the public prosecutors and Kouwenhoven have sought a higher court appeal. Kouwenhoven was released in March 2007 in anticipation of his new trial.. The Court of Appeal in The Hague acquitted him March 10, 2008 of all charges and sharply criticized the work of the prosecution. The prosecution appealed the acquittal to the Dutch Supreme Court at March 20, 2008. In April 2010 the supreme court ordered a re-trial at the court in Den Bosch. In November 2014, the court in Den Bosch was to hear arguments for dismissal as there were no witnesses available to testify. The Prosecutor Cara Pronk-Jordan wishes to have the earlier anonymous interviews used as evidence.[1]
References
- ↑ Anonymous witnesses lost case-Kouwenhoven De Telegraaf 29 October 2014