The Dutch Supreme Court has ordered a retrial of Guus Kouwenhoven, the Dutch businessman convicted of illegal arms dealing and sentenced to eight years in jail in 2006. Although he appealed and was released in 2008, the Public Prosecutor's Office in turn appealed against the decision to set him free. This latter appeal has now been granted by the Supreme Court in The Hague.

The Supreme Court says two more witnesses, who apparently can deliver damning testimony about the Mr Kouwenhoven, must be heard. They are alleged to have seen how the Dutchman took delivery of large shipments of weapons. The appeals court refused to hear their evidence, saying that they were presented during the late stages of the trial. The two witnesses made their statements to the Sierra Leone Tribunal.

The Supreme Court has now referred the case back to the appeals court in the city of Den Bosch and said it must be heard again.

Inez Weski, the lawyer for Mr Kouwenhoven, called the Supreme Court’s decision “incredible and alarming.” She went on to say that, “These two witnesses were known to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for a long time.” She said it was “incomprehensible” that the Supreme Court had only now stumbled over the appeals court’s refusal to hear their testimony.

Guus Kouwenhoven was accused of war crimes and illegal arms dealing in Liberia. He was said to have supplied weapons to Charles Taylor's regime in Liberia between 2000 and 2003, when the country was involved in a bloody civil war. In 2006, a court in The Hague sentenced him to eight year in jail for arms dealing.

However, an appeals court in The Hague acquitted him of the crime in March 2008, saying it was not convinced of the trustworthiness of the testimony of some witnesses and that there was not enough other evidence to convict him.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed against the decision to release him and has now been granted its request to present the testimony of the two witnesses.