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A person accused of committing atrocities for the duration of the 2nd Liberian Civil War, when he was recognized as “Standard Dragon Grasp,” has been arrested by federal authorities in Pennsylvania.
Laye Sekou Camara was charged with employing a fraudulently obtained immigration document, according to a legal criticism filed in the U.S. District Court docket for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania very last 7 days. Although implementing for a non-immigrant visa in 2011, Camara allegedly claimed he had “never been a member of or associated with a paramilitary unit, vigilante unit, rebel team, guerrilla team or insurgent group.”
Nonetheless, according to an affidavit from a Division of Homeland Stability (DHS) investigator provided in the grievance, Camara was a main member of the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, which has been accused of committing atrocities, which include the massacre of civilians, throughout the 1999-2003 war in Liberia.
“In fact, he was a higher-ranking member of the LURD rebel group through Liberia’s Next Civil War,” the investigator claimed of Camara, in accordance to a duplicate of the complaint offered to Newsweek by Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
The grievance cites a 2004 Point out Office report that asserts Camara was also acknowledged as “Sekou KAMARA” and “K1,” in addition to “Dragon Learn.” At the time, Camara was “in hiding soon after he allegedly killed a fellow LURD Basic known as Black Marine,” in accordance to the report.
Just after allegedly falsely getting a visa to enter the region, Camara afterwards acquired a environmentally friendly card on the same pretenses, which he went on to use on an software to Pennsylvania’s Division of Transportation in 2017. Camara had been living in southwest Philadelphia prior to his arrest, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Pennsylvania’s Workplace of Legal professional Common, DHS, and other federal businesses introduced an investigation into Camara in July of past yr. He was not the very first alleged previous Liberian war prison to be investigated on immigration fraud fees.
In 2017, Mohammed Jabbateh, also recognized as “Jungle Jabbateh,” was convicted on expenses of falsely acquiring immigration documents. He was a infamous warlord accused of atrocities committed throughout the First Liberian Civil War. Jabbateh, who experienced also been dwelling in Pennsylvania, was later sentenced to 30 several years in prison.
Liberia’s Initially Civil War, from 1989 to 1997, left hundreds of countless numbers useless, such as a large selection of civilians. Forces led by Charles Taylor executed the previous Liberian President Samuel Doe in 1990, right before heading to wrestle for regulate of the place in a struggle with many other rebel groups. The war ended when Taylor was elected Liberian president in 1997.
Rebel teams waging the Next Civil War hoped to clear away Taylor, who resigned from business office in August 2003 just ahead of a peace agreement finished the war. Taylor was later on convicted in international prison court of various war crimes and sentenced to 50 years in jail.
Newsweek achieved out to DHS and the Embassy of Liberia in Washington, D.C., for comment.