Mohammed Jabbateh (born September 1966, sometimes Jabateh), also known by his
nom de guerre
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Jungle Jabbah, is a Liberian war criminal and former
United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was an anti-rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996).
ULIMO was formed in May 1991 by Krahn and Mandingo refugees and soldiers who had fought in th ...
(ULIMO) and
ULIMO-K The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was an anti-rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996).
ULIMO was formed in May 1991 by Krahn and Mandingo refugees and soldiers who had fought in the ...
commander who was convicted in the United States of lying to immigration authorities about his role in the
First Liberian Civil War
The First Liberian Civil War lasted from 1989 to 1997.
President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The Nat ...
(1989-1997) when he sought
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
in the late 1990s. He was arrested in April 2016. On October 18, 2017, Jabbateh was tried and convicted in Philadelphia of two counts of
fraud in immigration documents and two counts of
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
stemming from false statements he made when filing for asylum and
permanent residence
''Permanent Residence'' () is a 2009 Hong Kong film starring Sean Li and Osman Hung. It was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Cheng, also known as Scud. The film explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society, ...
. 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. He lost his appeal in September 2020.
Atrocities
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.
Immigration to the United States
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 The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was an anti-rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996).
ULIMO was formed in May 1991 by Krahn and Mandingo refugees and soldiers who had fought in the ...
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?".
Indictment and arrest
On March 10, 2016, Jabbateh was indicted and charged by the US Attorney's Office for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phila ...
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
Lansdowne is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, located southwest of the Center City Philadelphia. It was named for the Marquess of Lansdowne. As of the 2010 census the borough had a population of 10,620.
Lansdowne grew quickly in the ...
.
Trial
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
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
and prosecuted the
massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia. 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. The defense counsel presented their case on October 16, 2017.
Verdict
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. Jabbateh was sentenced to 30 years in prison on April 19, 2018. Although federal guidelines generally only call for 15 to 21 months in prison for the charges he was convicted, U.S. District Judge
Paul S. Diamond instead sentenced him to the statutory maximum, saying it would be "not only unreasonable but outrageously offensive" in light of his past.
"I want to be clear, I am departing not based on the horror of the atrocities the defendant committed abroad," Diamond said. "Rather, I am departing based on the egregiousness of his lies…and their effect on our asylum laws and immigration system." He said Jabbateh had made a "mockery" of the U.S. asylum system that had been established to protect people fleeing from human rights abusers like himself.
Jabbateh was a commander or higher-ranking officer in ULIMO and ULIMO-K, and during that time he either personally committed, or ordered ULIMO troops under his command to commit the following list of acts:
# The murder of civilian non-combatants
# The sexual enslavement of women
# The public raping of women
# The maiming of civilian non-combatants
# The torturing of civilian non-combatants
# The enslavement of civilian non-combatants
# The conscription of child soldiers
# The execution of prisoners of war
# The desecration and mutilation of corpses
# The killing of persons because of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinion
Appeal
Jabbateh's conviction and sentence were unprecedented, both as the first conviction connected to the First Liberian Civil War and also for the length at 17 times the recommended sentence for such immigration offences, the longest ever sentence in the US for lying about war crimes on immigration forms. Jabbateh appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in January 2020 on the basis that his crimes in Liberia did not amount to genocide. Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro noted the unusual length of the sentence and that it could be viewed as being imposed for his war crimes rather than his immigration offences. Jabbateh lost his appeal in September 2020. Judges Ambro, Paul Matey, and Julio M. Fuentes noted that some of the charges he was convicted of should not have been applied, but allowed them to stand because his lawyer had not objected. The forms filed in 2002 were beyond the statute of limitations, but the charges related to lying in a 2011 immigration interview despite the law only applying to written documents. They ruled that Judge Diamond correctly used his discretion in imposing the long sentence.
According to the
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...
website, Jabbateh is serving his sentence at
Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood Medium
The Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood Medium (FCI Allenwood Medium) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Gregg Township, Union County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Allenwood Federal Correctional Com ...
. He is scheduled for release on November 5, 2041. Jabbateh's inmate number is .
Personal life
Jabbateh was granted US political asylum on December 23, 1999. He settled in Lansdowne, where he remained until his conviction in October 2017. Jabbateh has a wife and five children who live in Philadelphia. Jabbateh also has an ex-wife and at least seven children who live in Liberia or elsewhere on the African continent, who he attempted to sponsor to immigrate to the US.
Jabbateh started a shipping company in 2008, Jabateh Brothers Loading Services, which packages and ships containers to Liberia. It remains in operation.
Friends and family in his community around Philadelphia regarded him favorably.
He does not hold a US passport and had not left the country since his arrival in 1998.
References
External links
Legal Monitoring of the Jungle Jabbah Case(Civitas Maxima, 2017)
United States v. Jabateh, 974 F.3d 281 (3d Cir. 2020)- appeal verdict
"Is ‘Jungle Jabbah’ a ruthless killer or vendetta victim? Two portraits emerge in Delco man’s trial"(WHYY, 2017)
"Jurors begin deliberations in alleged warlord's trial"(WHYY, 2017)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jabbateh, Mohammed
1966 births
Living people
African warlords
Liberian emigrants to the United States
People convicted of making false statements
People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania
People convicted of immigration fraud
Liberian military personnel
Liberian cannibals
Liberian mass murderers
War criminals