The Dutch Court of Appeal has overturned the 2006 conviction of Guus Kouwenhoven by the District Court of The Hague. The earlier judgement had found businessman Guus Kouwenhoven guilty of violating a Dutch weapons embargo prohibiting arms trade with Liberia.

In its judgement of 7 June 2006, the District Court had sentenced Kouwenhoven to eight years’ imprisonment for violating the Dutch weapons embargo implementing UN Security Council sanctions on the Charles Taylor regime. Both the Defence and the Prosecution appealed the District Court’s judgement, with the latter asking for a term of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of € 450,000.

On 10 March 2008, the Court of Appeal acquitted Kouwenhoven of all charges – including allegations by the Prosecution that he had participated in war crimes allegedly committed by Liberian troops and militias from 2000 to 2002.

According to the Court of Appeal, the only direct evidence regarding Kouwenhoven’s involvement in the transportation of weapons to the regime and the commission of war crimes in Liberia and Guinea consisted of insufficiently substantiated statements by witnesses. Despite a number of witnesses testifying about Kouwenhoven’s involvement in the serious offences he was accused of, the Court had not been able to sufficiently establish the reliability of those witness statements. Some witnesses were deemed to have changed important parts of their statements and many statements were otherwise ruled not credible. The remaining evidence was not strong enough for the Court to come to a judicial finding of the facts.

Overall, the Court of Appeal had a considerable number of doubts as to the evidentiary material submitted by the Public Prosecution Service (PPP). In its opinion, a conviction would not have been well founded. The Court also expressed its concern about the way in which the investigation was conducted by the National Criminal Investigation Department under the direction of the PPP.

Referring to the lack of verification of witness statements and the failure to satisfactorily address exculpatory information submitted by the Defence, the Court of Appeal concluded that there had been a serious failure in attempting to establish the truth in the case.

* An English translation of the Court of Appeal's judgement will be made available on the Hague Justice Portal in due course

Press release
Court of Appeal Judgement (in Dutch)