Facts
Guus Kouwenhoven is a Dutch businessman, born in 1942.
In his capacity as Director of Operations of the Oriental Timber Company (OTC) and owner of the Royal Timber Company (RTC), Kouwenhoven facilitated the importation of weapons for former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, thereby contravening United Nations Security Council embargoes.
The United Nations consequently imposed a travel ban on Guus Kouwenhoven in 2001, qualifying him as “an arms trafficker breaching the Resolution 1343 of the Security Council” in addition to being “ someone who supported the efforts of ex-President Taylor in destabilizing Sierra Leone to gain illegal access to its diamonds”.
The imported arms were allegedly handed over to militia and utilized for number of massacres committed during the civil war. In addition, Guus Kouwenhoven was also accused of having supplied the militias with vehicles and installations to transport and store these arms.
Procedure
On 18 March 2005, Kouwenhoven was arrested in Rotterdam. He was charged with delivering arms to Liberia, involvement in war crimes committed in that country and breaching the embargo decreed by the UN on Liberia.
His trial began on 24 April 2006 in The Hague. On 7 June 2006, the Dutch Court acquitted Kouwenhoven of war crimes due to a lack of evidence. He was, however, sentenced to an eight-year prison term for breaking the UN arms embargo. Both sides filed an appeal. On 19 March 2007, Kouwenhoven was conditionally released pending his appeal against the judgment.
On 10 March 2008, the Dutch Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and acquitted Kouwenhoven of all charges due to insufficient evidence.
On 20 April 2010, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal. The Dutch Supreme Court considered that the appeal judges erred when they had rejected a prosecution request to hear testimonies of two new witnesses and therefore ordered a new appellate trial.
In December 2016, Kouwenhoven fled to South Africa.
Kouwenhoven’s appeal hearings nevertheless began on 6 February 2017 before the Court of Appeals in Den Bosch. On 10 February 2017, the Prosecution repeated the original demand of 20 years of imprisonment for Kouwenhoven.
On 21 April 2017, the Court of Appeal of Den Bosch sentenced Kouwenhoven in absentia to 19 years’ imprisonment for complicity in war crimes committed in Liberia and for his involvement in arms trafficking for Taylor. The Court of Appeal considered that by providing weapons, personnel and equipment to the armed conflict, Kouwenhoven consciously accepted the probability that war crimes and/or crimes against humanity would be committed.
On 8 December 2017, Kouwenhoven was arrested in South Africa on a Dutch warrant. The Netherlands requested his extradition. Kouwenhoven’s extradition hearings in South Africa were postponed several times in 2018 for medical reasons. The last hearing took place in October 2018.
On 18 December 2018, the Dutch Supreme Court upheld the conviction for aiding and abetting war crimes. The judgement is final.
In 2019, Kouwenhoven challenged the legality of the warrant of arrest issued by the Magistrate’s Court in Pretoria (South Africa), arguing that it was unlawful and invalid. On 19 September 2019, the Court confirmed that the warrant itself, the applicant’s arrest on 8 December 2017 and the proceedings to date were all lawful.
On 21 February 2020, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court denied the extradition request of Kouwenhoven to the Netherlands, as South Africa’s Extradition Act limits extraditions to those regarding offenses committed within the applicant state.
On 5 November 2020, the South African Department of Home Affairs cancelled Kouwenhoven’s visitor’s visa and declared him undesirable. He was given 10 working days (until 20 November) to appeal the decision.
On 22 September 2021, the South African Supreme Court found that Kouwenhoven could be extradited. The Supreme Court found that Kouwenhoven “was convicted by a Dutch court of a crime under Dutch law.”
Kouwenhoven has appealed his conviction in the Netherlands to the European Court of Human Rights.