Guus Kouwenhoven, convicted of complicity in war crimes, dies without serving sentence — Daily Maverick
Dutch businessman Guus Kouwenhoven, who was sentenced in the Netherlands to 19 years in prison for supplying weapons to Charles Taylor’s regime and complicity in war crimes in Liberia, died on September 10 at the age of 83. He did not serve his sentence despite years-long attempts to extradite him from South Africa to the Netherlands.
Daily Maverick reports this. On September 16, a requiem mass in Kouwenhoven’s honour was held in Constantia, a suburb of Cape Town. A relative who spoke at the ceremony described him as a generous man who valued friendship, work and loyalty.
Conviction in the Netherlands
Criminal proceedings against Kouwenhoven in the Netherlands began in 2005. In 2017, a Dutch court found him guilty of supplying weapons to the regime of Liberian President Charles Taylor in 2001–2003 in violation of sanctions legislation. He was also found complicit in war crimes committed by Liberian military personnel or militants in 2000–2002.
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According to the UN, trade in timber and diamonds during Liberia’s second civil war in 1999–2003 provided Taylor’s regime with funds for military activities and the purchase of significant quantities of weapons. Kouwenhoven owned the Oriental Timber Company. Dutch prosecutors investigated his business activities in Liberia, which, according to the UN, facilitated the import, storage and distribution of weapons used by Taylor’s regime.
Attempts to extradite him from South Africa
Since late 2016, Kouwenhoven had lived in South Africa on a visitor’s visa, citing his health condition. In December 2017, he was arrested in Cape Town on a request for extradition to the Netherlands, but was released on bail after 11 days. He subsequently challenged his arrest and the grounds for his transfer to Dutch authorities, while his South African visa was revoked in 2020.
In September 2021, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Kouwenhoven could be extradited to the Netherlands. His application to the European Court of Human Rights was later declared inadmissible for failing to meet basic application requirements. However, Kouwenhoven never reached a Dutch prison before his death.
