The National Court has ordered a prison sentence without bail for a Spanish businessman accused of trafficking with people known as 'blood diamonds', which financed the civil war in Sierra Leone. The judge, at the request of the private prosecutor and with the opposing opinion of the Public Prosecutor's Office, made the decision against Manuel Terrén due to the high risk of flight after finding evidence that between 1997 and 2002 this businessman had “profited from the sale of diamonds” given to him by members of the rebel side, precious stones extracted by slaves in the Kono mines.
Sierra Leone’s civil war began in the early 1990s and for more than a decade, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) massacres have left tens of thousands dead and two and a half million displaced. The coup group funded much of the civil war by mining diamonds from the country’s mines using slave labor extracted from the civilians they had kidnapped.
In 2021, a victim of the war, represented by lawyers Hernán Garcés and Juan Garcés, supported by the NGO Civitas Maxima, went to the National Court in Madrid, targeting a Spanish businessman who, according to his version, would have profited from this sale and trafficking in precious stones known as “blood diamonds” for their role in the war: Manuel Terrén.
According to the complaint, the businessman bought the RUF diamonds through Orfund Group in order to later use a 'business front' in Liberia and be able to sell them in Antwerp. In this way, he managed to overcome the main obstacle to the sale of diamonds: the UN embargo and the restrictions to prevent the sale of diamonds from financing the massacre in Sierra Leone.
Police arrested Terré last Tuesday in the Malaga town of Coín and he was placed at the disposal of National Court judge Francisco de Jorge, who issued a provisional prison sentence on Friday, legal sources told elDiario.es. Terrén was in Spain, but, the magistrate explained, his “real residence” is in Brazil and a possible departure to that country would complicate the case, not only because of the escape but also because of “the complexity of the extradition procedure.”
Under investigation for war crimes
The complaint attributes crimes against humanity to the businessman, within the framework of the armed conflict and the criminal organization. The magistrate doubts in his resolution the crime against humanity, but understands that the diamond trade in the middle of the civil war in Sierra Leone fits among other things in a war crime. The Public Prosecution Service had opposed his detention.
The judge explains after more than a year of investigation that there is evidence that leads us to suspect that Terrén “profited from the sale of diamonds given to him by members of the FRU.” Diamonds from the Kono mines “where they were extracted by workers forced to work in the mines by the RUF in slavery.”
The diamonds from Sierra Leone were sold in Europe by “other associates” of the businessman, “who passed them off as diamonds from a mine in Liberia” which, according to the judge, two Terrén companies, called Bluestone and Diandorra, had the rights to exploit. In this way, the coup faction managed to “circumvent the embargo imposed by the United Nations.” The businessman was, according to the judge, “fully aware of the situation of those working in the mines and of the measures imposed by the UN in light of the evidence of crimes against humanity committed by the RUF.”
The complaint was filed on behalf of a victim of the conflict who, according to the document, “was forced to work day and night, together with 300 other civilians, in inhuman living conditions, in the Tombodu mines under RUF control, in order to extract the diamonds that would later be introduced on the international market.” The diamonds that, the judge now suspects, were marketed by this Spanish businessman.
Terrén intervened as a “necessary collaborator,” according to the judge’s order. Keeping thousands of civilians as slaves in the Kono mines “only made sense” if he and other businessmen bought diamonds in exchange for weapons for the RUF. Necessary collaborator in kidnappings but “also in war crimes” and the supply of weapons.
Among other evidence, the judge highlights the appearance of witnesses, some of whom are protected, which makes clear “the participation at the highest level” of the Spanish businessman.
In a note released on Saturday, police explained that agents from the Commissariat for General Information searched a large building in Malaga, the detainee’s summer residence. Documentation and electronic devices were seized and are now being analyzed. The Ministry of the Interior always celebrates the cooperation provided by the Brazilian police.