Keen interest in trial of murdered Liberian ‘warlord’

Two years after Bill Horace, an accused Liberian warlord who fled to Canada, was shot to dead, his alleged killer is expected to appear in court this week. News of the shooting – in the town of London, Ontaria – made headlines, not just because of the violent nature of the attack but because of the identity of the victim. Although he was never charged with war crimes in Liberia or Canada, several people have identified him as a commander in former Liberian President Charles Taylor's army. BBC News reports that Taylor was convicted of crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone and is serving a 50-year sentence. Police believe Horace had become embroiled with criminals in his adopted country. They have charged Keiron Gregory with second-degree murder. Three other accused remain at large.

Massa Washington, a veteran journalist who served as a commissioner on Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told the BBC that Horace was one of Taylor’s most ‘notorious’ generals. ‘He was alleged to have committed some of the most atrocious crimes that you could imagine – murdered whole families, shot people to death, behead people,’ she said. ‘His men were involved in the rape of women, opening of pregnant women's stomachs.’  Washington said Horace was named in the Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report and it was recommended that he face prosecution, but he was never charged. To date, no-one has ever been convicted in Liberia of war crimes committed in that country.

 

 

Full BBC News report