Sierra Leonean Ex-Rebel Commander Appears In Finland Court

A suspected warlord from Sierra Leone Gibril Massaquoi has appeared in an appeals court in Finland.

Report says a retrial was ordered after Mr. Massaquoi was acquitted by a lower court last year.

The trial will move to Liberia next month and then to Sierra Leone.

Mr. Massaquoi was arrested in Finland in 2020, accused of murder, rape and other war crimes.

He was a senior commander in the Revolutionary United Front, a Sierra Leonean rebel group that also fought in Liberia.

Report says hundreds of thousands of people were killed and mutilated in the Sierra Leonean and Liberian civil wars of the 1990s and early 2000s.

BBC/Christopher Ojilere