Written by Emma Farge | From Reuters

A Liberian court on Tuesday sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment for cross-border raids into Ivory Coast that killed seven UN peacekeepers in a controversial case.

The Liberian nationals were indicted for their alleged involvement in a series of attacks in neighboring Ivory Coast between 2011-2012 in which they burned houses, murdered civilians and raped women.

During raids on the Ivorian villages of Tai and Para in June 2012, seven peacekeepers from Niger were killed.

“I confirm and affirm the guilty verdict of the jurors. The verdict of the jurors met the law,” said Judge Emery Paye on Tuesday, referring to an initial guilty judgment given last week and confirmed on Tuesday.

Dressed in bright orange jumpsuits, the men yelled after the verdict was handed down inside the heavily guarded courtroom.

Supporters of the convicted said the trial was a political witch hunt against the Krahn group – the ethnicity of former President Samuel Doe who was assassinated in 1990, sparking a 14-year civil war.

Current Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was imprisoned under Doe and is seen by some as holding a grudge against his supporters.

Read more at Reuters