Guus Kouwenhoven

Guus Kouwenhoven (born 15 September 1942, Rotterdam) is a Dutch businessman who worked in Liberia during the presidency of Charles Taylor.

Trial

The United Nations issued an order in 2001 banning him from traveling because of arms trafficking. Kouwenhoven was arrested in the Netherlands on 18 March 2005 and stood trial at the Court of First Instance in The Hague, starting 24 April 2006. The court tried to summon Charles Taylor to testify against Kouwenhoven. Kouwenhoven was charged with arms smuggling and war crimes in Liberia in the 90s, for which the Dutch public prosecutors sought a 20-year jail sentence and a fine of €450,000 against Kouwenhoven. On 7 June 2006 Kouwenhoven was sentenced to 8 years in jail for arms smuggling. The court did not find him to be guilty of war crimes. Both the public prosecutors and Kouwenhoven have sought a higher court appeal. Kouwenhoven was released in March 2007 in anticipation of his new trial.[1]. The Court of Appeal in The Hague acquitted him on 10 March 2008 of all charges and sharply criticized the work of the prosecution. The prosecution appealed the acquittal to the Dutch Supreme Court on 20 March 2008. In April 2010 the supreme court ordered a re-trial at the court in Den Bosch. In November 2014, the court in Den Bosch was to hear arguments for dismissal as there were no witnesses available to testify. The Prosecutor Cara Pronk-Jordan wished to have the earlier anonymous interviews used as evidence. On 21 April 2017, Kouwenhoven was convicted to a 19 year jail sentence for illegal arms traficking and complicity in war crimes in Liberia and Guinea.