A Liberian woman rebel commander accused of involvement in her country's first civil war in the 1990s was sent Thursday to trial in Belgium for "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".
This referral for trial of Martina Johnson, announced by Swiss NGO Civitas Maxima, which works to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice, was confirmed to AFP by the Belgian federal prosecutor's office.
Johnson is a former commander in the forces of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), which the courts accuse of having committed atrocities in the campaign to bring rebel leader Charles Taylor to power.
Taylor was the leader of this armed group and served as president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003.
Johnson was arrested near Ghent in Belgium in September 2014 as part of an investigation opened in 2012 following a complaint filed by Belgian lawyer Luc Walleyn on behalf of three Liberian victims.
The crimes and acts of persecution she is alleged to have committed relate to the period 1990-1999, according to the federal prosecutor's office, which did not provide details of the charges.
These years correspond to the first of the two civil wars Liberia experienced between 1989 and 2003, which claimed around 250,000 lives.
According to Civitas Maxima, prosecutors accuse Johnson of "participating directly in persecution and mass killings committed in late 1992 during Operation Octopus,an infamous military offensive waged on Liberia's capital".
The NGO said the parties now await confirmation of the trial date, calling Thursday's decision "a key milestone" in the victims' long quest for justice.
It comes "14 years after the opening of the investigation, and 34 years after Operation Octopus," it added.
On Thursday, the indictment chamber of the Ghent court of appeal ruled on the referral to the assize court, following the submissions of the federal prosecutor's office.
Charles Taylor, now 78, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone and is serving his sentence in the United Kingdom.
