Laye Sekou Camara in his sentencing hearing in January, Credit: Chase Walker/Civitas Maxima
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – Laye Sekou Camara, known by the war names “K-1” or “Dragon master”, a former commander of the Lurd rebel group, was taken into custody Thursday after being sentenced by a federal court to 57 months in prison for lying in U.S. immigration proceedings about his role in Liberia’s second civil war.
By Jake Duffy with New Narratives
Judge Chad F. Kenney found Camara, a former commander of the LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebel group, lied on his immigration forms when he denied being part of any paramilitary or insurgency organization and recruiting child soldiers when applying for a non-immigrant visa or “green card” in 2011.
Kenney resisted imposing the maximum sentence of 40 years sought by prosecutors.
“While I can take into consideration his acts in Liberia, this court is not an international tribunal or Liberian court,” he said, adding that Camara’s war time actions should not be properly prosecuted in his jurisdiction, the U.S. Third District Court of Appeals.
The sentence marked a departure from the sentence here in 2018 of Ulimo commander Mohammed Jabbateh who is serving a 30-year sentence for lying about his wartime record in immigration proceedings. The judge in that case found the underlying crimes were so egregious that he applied the higher levels of the sentencing guidelines.
Camara, outside the courtroom on Thursday.
Unlike European jurisdictions which have tried several perpetrators of Liberia’s civil conflict in recent years, the U.S. does not have laws against so-called “international crimes” such as torture and recruitment of child soldiers that could apply to crimes committed in Liberia’s conflict. For this reason prosecutors here have used criminal immigration fraud to hold perpetrators to account and prevent them from escaping justice by hiding in exile.
Camara had sought leniency in sentencing by pleading guilty. Experts said his sentence – significantly lower than the 40-year term that prosecutors sought – may well have reflected that. Experts said Camara’s sentence may also factor into considerations of Moses Wright, the former Armed Forces of Liberia commander, another combatant facing charges of immigration fraud, whose trial is set to go ahead here in May.
Camara sat slouched and quiet for the majority of his sentencing, glaring into space as U.S. prosecutors listed the long list of crimes to which he had confessed including a litany of human rights violations ranging from extrajudicial killings to child soldier recruitment during his time as a general during the Second Liberian Civil War from 1999 to 2003.
When given a chance to speak Camara became emotional as he recalled witnessing his own father’s beheading by forces with Taylor’s National Patriotic Front for Liberia during the first Liberian civil war. In January Camara signed a confession to the crimes he was charged with, but in a strange statement that raised questions about how much he understood of the judicial process he was part of, he denied any responsibility for violence committed during the conflict.
“I never committed any crime in Liberia,” he said. “I only help people.”
Camara, who has been under home detention since his arrest in 2022 was handcuffed and taken directly to prison from the court room.
The courthouse in Philadelphia
Judge Kenney ruled that Camara must serve at least 80 percent of the sentence. He will then be deported to Liberia in 2029. Because Camara has not faced charges directly related to his war time activities he can still be tried in a Liberian War Crimes Court. President Joseph Boakai set up an Office for the War and Economics Crimes Court in 2024 and the court is expected to begin proceedings in 2027. Liberian prosecutors may use evidence compiled in the Pennsylvania case to build a case in a Liberian court.
Camara is the third Liberian combatant who has been convicted of immigration fraud by prosecutors in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District, where a large community of Liberians has lived for decades. Jabbateh was convicted in 2017. Charles Taylor’s lieutenant Thomas Woewiyu was facing 70 years in prison when he died in Covid before sentencing in 2021.
Alain Werner, director of Civitas Maxima, a Swiss based group that gathers evidence of war related crimes in Liberia, said the sentence was a victory for victims. “Without the victims there would have been no case and he would not have spent one day in jail.”
The shorter sentence will likely come as a disappointment to witnesses, some of whom claimed that Camara had threatened them in an attempt to stop them testifying against them. Seventeen traveled from Liberia to Philadelphia to testify against him in a sentencing hearing in January.
Camara’s supporters said they knew he was not going to return home but were happy that his sentence was dramatically shorter than the maximum. Mohamed Kamara, cousin to Camara who was in the courtroom when the prison sentence was handed down, said he was pleasantly surprised. “I’m happy with that, because that’s what God decided for him, 57 months we are happy.”
Outside the courthouse, defense lawyer Richard J. Fuschino presented the sentence as a win. “We did better than I expected,” he said. “To get under five years, when the alternative is 40, I think is positive news in a horrible situation. There is still infighting and problems but it’s not our business, with no disrespect to Liberians.”
Camara’s supporters
Fuschino said that he will be talking with Camara about the possibility of appealing the sentence.
Lusine Sesay, a supporter at the hearing, who said he met Camara in a refugee camp in Guinea said the sentencing was a “fair judgement”.
“You cannot hold him accountable when there’s not enough evidence, they only prosecute him for lying,” said Sesay.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.
