Guus Kouwenhoven, 77, was handed a 19-year prison sentence by a Dutch court in 2017 for smuggling weapons for former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor during that country’s civil war. The conviction was the result of a retrial following an earlier acquittal in 2008.

Kouwenhoven’s case garnered attention in the Netherlands because he was among the first to be prosecuted for involvement with rights abuses on another continent. He traveled to Cape Town in 2016 and has since refused to return.

“As an individual who has been convicted of being complicit in war crimes as well as being a fugitive from justice, Kouwenhoven cannot remain free and at large in South Africa,” the litigation center said in an emailed statement Monday. “Even though the Netherlands has requested his extradition, the extradition proceedings have been repeatedly postponed and delayed.”

The Western Cape High Court should cancel the visa of Kouwenhoven, who’s a fugitive of justice, and force him to return, the center said.

Kouwenhoven’s attorney, Gary Eisenberg, hasn’t received the documents yet and as such can’t immediately comment, a spokeswoman at Eisenberg’s offices said.

Charles Taylor, who played a key role in the Liberian civil war but was convicted for crimes against humanity committed in neighboring Sierra Leone, has been serving a 50-year sentence in a U.K. prison since 2012.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Pauline Bax in Johannesburg at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Antony Sguazzin at [email protected]
Pauline Bax, Jacqueline Mackenzie