PARIS, France, March 6 -- Kunti Kamara's appeal of his November 2022 conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity got underway at the Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday. Kumara, a former rebel commander, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the lower court.

By Prue Clarke with New Narratives

Kumara, 49, has admitted to being a commander with the United Liberation Movement for Democracy (Ulimo) rebel group in Foya, Lofa County in northern Liberia in 1993, but he denies he committed the 11 counts for which he was convicted including murdering a sick woman, torturing a schoolteacher and eating his heart, and the gang rape of a nine-year-old girl.

In his final statement to the jury in the earlier trial Kamara professed his innocenc...