PHILADELPHIA —A Liberian accused of committing gruesome war crimes when he was a rebel commander called Jungle Jabbah was convicted Wednesday of lying about his past so he could enter the U.S.
Several people from the West African nation came to Philadelphia to speak of their encounters with Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, leading to his conviction on charges of fraud and perjury for lying on immigration forms and to U.S. officials.
Mostly civilian villagers, prosecution witnesses brought with them stories of cannibalism, sexual enslavement and beheadings.
One said Jabbateh sliced a baby from a pregnant woman’s stomach and strung her intestines up as rope. Another recalled that Jabbateh in 1994 ordered his soldiers to kill a town chief whose heart was then boiled and eaten.
“Jabbateh sought to escape to the United States and start anew, where he lied about his extensive and horrific criminal background on federal immigration forms and to the faces of U.S. immigration officers,” Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen wrote in a statement. “Jabbateh committed atrocities in Liberia that ravaged communities in ways that will be felt for generations.”
Source: AP/ABC News
