Escaped Dutch arms dealer Guus Kouwenhoven dies at 84

Guus Kouwenhoven, an 84-year-old Dutch businessman, has died, his family announced. He was sentenced in 2017 by the court in Den Bosch to 19 years in prison for illegal arms trafficking and complicity in war crimes in Liberia and Guinea, a judgment that the Dutch Supreme Court later confirmed. In the late 1980s he built a timber operation in Liberia and, in 2000-2001, supplied weapons to dictator Charles Taylor, breaching United Nations sanctions.

Kouwenhoven was arrested in Cape Town at the end of 2017 but released on bail, and subsequent attempts to extradite him to the Netherlands failed for various reasons, including a serious leg injury. Earlier, he had faced an eight-year sentence for arms smuggling in 2006, which was overturned on appeal, and the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in 2010. He consistently maintained his innocence.