Mohammed Jabbateh

Mohammed Jabbateh (born September 1966, sometimes Jabateh), also known by his nom de guerre Jungle Jabbah, is a Liberian war criminal and former United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and ULIMO-K commander who was convicted in the United States of lying to immigration authorities about his role in the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) when he sought asylum in the late 1990s.

The government stated that as a ULIMO-K commander in the late 1990s, Jabbateh either committed himself or ordered his troops to "commit crimes such as the murder of civilians, sexual enslavement of women, public rapes, conscription of child soldiers and maiming and torture of noncombatants."

Twenty witnesses and victims were flown from Liberia to Philadelphia to testify in court against Jabbateh.

Gregory J. Pagano was the attorney for Jabbateh.

Pagano interrogated the credibility of the government's selection of the witnesses and their testimonies.

Jabbateh joined ULIMO in 1992.

He rose to the rank of a commander.

Jabbateh was the leader of the Zebra Battalion.

The organization was responsible for countless atrocities, including the murders of hundreds of civilians, rape, sexual slavery, torture, ritual cannibalism, and human enslavement.

In 1994, ULIMO split into two warring factions, ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J.

Jabbateh stuck with the former organization.

Both groups continued to commit atrocities.

According to witnesses, Jabbateh would cut out the hearts of some of his victims and force their widows to cook them.

He would then feed the cooked heart to his men, believing it give them strength.

In December 1998, Jabbateh submitted his application for US asylum and later for US permanent residency.

Jabbateh disclosed that he was a member of ULIMO and later ULIMO-K (Mandingo ethnic faction), but he did not reveal his alleged capacity.

In January 1999, an immigration asylum officer interviewed Jabbateh to determine whether his asylum application should be granted.

Jabbateh responded "no" to these two questions: 1.

"Have you ever committed a crime?"

and 2.

Have you ever harmed anyone else?" In January 1999, Jabbateh received US asylum based on his answers to questions posed on his Form I-589 asylum application form.

Jabbateh also applied for permanent residency (also known as a green card) using Form I-485.

He responded "No" to these two questions: 1.

"Have you ever engaged in genocide, or otherwise ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the killing of any person because of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinion?"

2. "Are you under a final order of civil penalty for violating section 274C of the Immigration and Nationality Act for use of fraudulent documents of have you, by fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact, ever sought to procure or procured a visa, other documentation, or entry into the US or any immigration benefit?".

He was arrested in April 2016.

On March 10, 2016, Jabbateh was indicted and charged by the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with two counts of fraud in immigration documents in violation of the 18 U.S.C. § 1546 and two counts of perjury in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1621.

The indictment was unsealed on April 13, 2016, and Jabbateh was arrested in his Delaware County home in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.

On October 18, 2017, Jabbateh was tried and convicted in Philadelphia of two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury stemming from false statements he made when filing for asylum and permanent residence.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison the following April, the statutory maximum allowed.

Jabbateh was the first person convicted of crimes stemming from war-related activities during the First Liberian Civil War.

On October 2, 2017, Jabbateh was arraigned before the Honorable Judge Paul S. Diamond at the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Jabbateh pleaded not guilty on all counts.

The jury, composed of eight women and four men, was selected the same day and opening arguments began the following day.

The trial lasted for three weeks until October 18, 2017.

Assistant United States Attorney Linwood C. Wright, Jr. and Assistant United States Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer prosecuted Jabbateh.

Thayer was previously a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and prosecuted the massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia.

The defense counsel presented their case on October 16, 2017.

On October 18, Jabbateh was convicted of two counts of fraud in immigration documents and two counts of perjury stemming from statements he made in connection with his applications for asylum and permanent residence.

He lost his appeal in September 2020.